The Medical Superintendent of the Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital, Dr Alex Benneh, is confident a public-private partnership would help fill the gap in acquiring essential equipment that would enhance quality healthcare delivery to clients.
He pointed out at the unveiling of a bust and commissioning of a 540-kilovolt generator for the Hospital at Mampong-Akuapem in the Eastern Region.
The Tetteh Quarshie Memorial Hospital was established in February, 1961.
The Hospital, built with funds from the then Ghana Cocoa Marketing Board, will be 60 years.
The Hospital is a 150-bed capacity hospital that serves the whole of Akuapem ridge and beyond.
Total out-patient department figures has increased steadily over the period of three years from 49,000 per annum to 87 ,000 per annum, Dr Alex Benneh disclosed
Under-five malaria deaths stood at 8.6 percent.
The Hospital is near to recording no maternal mortality death as the year 2020 ends, a feat Dr Alex Benneh wants to maintain.
”Our maternal mortality at 2017 stood at 555 per 100,000 deliveries. [In] 2018, 120 per 100 000 deliveries, [in] 2019, 69 per 100,000 deliveries, 2020 as I speak 0 maternal death and targeting that till December ends.”
He indicated also that the Hospital is determined to provide quality, affordable healthcare to clients but it is limited by financial constraints and believe a public-private partnership could help improve quality heathcare.
”It is against this backdrop that the collaboration between management and lawyer Phillip Addison yielded the donation of 540 KVA electric generator to the hospital and a bust in memory of Tetteh Quarshie.”
Dr Benneh added: “Even though we have a functional generator donated by the Akwapem North Municipal Assembly, it is limited by its capacity to supply live power to all the clinical areas during power outage. The new generator has the capacity to supply the whole hospital and power the mortuary fridges too. And can work five continuous days nonstop. The mounting of the statue is to add to the honour already done to the late Tetteh Quarshie and we find that appropriate. Management is grateful to lawyer Phillip Addison for this great act.”
Lawyer Phillip Addison, who donated the bust and generator, observed several Ghanaians did not have a pictorial image of Tetteh Quarshie, hence his effort to fund the bust and to the memory of his late mother, who was a staff at the hospital.
He acknowledged cocoa brought in to Ghana by Tetteh Quarshie has become a mainstay of the nation’s economy that more should be done in his memory.
Lawyer Phillip Addison contested the New Patriotic Party (NPP) primaries to be a paliamentary candidate for the Akropong Constituency in the Eastern Region but was disqualified.
Great-grand relatives of Tetteh Quarshie were at the event.
Madam Hammond is one of them. She was not happy at successive government that the family was not benefiting from the legacy of Tetteh Quarshie and commended Lawyer Addison for the bust project.
By Yvonne Neequaye|3news.com|Ghana