The United Kingdom branch of the BONABOTA, a Civil Society Organization, has donated three incubators to the New-born Care Unit of the Upper East Regional hospital for effective health care delivery for premature babies.

The BONABOTO comprise citizens of the Bolgatanga, Nabdam, Bongo and Tongo who advocate development projects for their districts and mobilise resources to support the wellbeing of their people.

Presenting the items to management of the hospital in Bolgatanga on behalf of his colleagues, Mr David Atugiya, former Secretary of the BONABOTO, UK branch, explained that the cost of the incubators including shipping and other charges amounted to US$20,000.00 and was funded from a fundraising event.

The former Secretary noted that the incubators donated were selected from a list of needs the management of the hospital presented to them upon request and a research conducted by the BONABOTO-UK with regards to the health system in Ghana.

“One of the main reasons we embarked on this project was because, the little research that was done by BONABOTO-UK indicated that in Ghana, newborn deaths accounted for 46 per cent of all deaths among children under the age of five.

“Premature birth is a leading cause of newborn deaths, with one in seven babies born before 37 weeks of gestation. It is twice in the regions such as Northern, Upper East and Upper West and this due to poverty, distance from a health facility and inadequate awareness of pregnancy challenges,” Mr Atugiya stated.

He expressed the hope that the equipment would enable staff of the hospital to function effectively and efficiently, to achieve improved health care and save many lives.

Mr Atugiya said BONABOTO since its humanitarian service started in 1997, had given support to various institutions especially health facilities in its catchment area and contributed immensely to the development of the Upper East Region.

Dr Abdul-Razak Dokurugu, the Deputy Director, Clinical Care, Ghana Health Services, who received the items on behalf of the management of the hospital expressed gratitude to BONABOTO for their continuous support over the years and pledged to put the items into good use to achieve maximum benefit.

Dr Dokurugu explained that the health of newborn babies was one major indicator to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goal three, which put emphasis on access to quality health for all and the gesture was timely as the regional directorate was strategizing to improve on the quality of health care for newborn babies.

He said the regional hospital was the only major referral facility in the region and it was therefore imperative for measures to be put in place to improve health delivery especially antennal for pregnant women.

Dr Samuel Abora, the Acting Medical Director of the Regional Hospital, commended BONABOTO for facilitating the surgeries of 79 clients in 2019.

He said the incubators would boost their efforts at improving the health care services to newborns and appealed for support from other organizations.

Dr Abora also appealed to BONABOTO to assist the hospital with ventilators and lobby for a neonatologist and pediatrician for the hospital, to augment the efforts and cement the gains made so far.