Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), Dec.5, GNA - The President of the Dormaa Traditional Council, Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyemang Badu II, has cut the sod at Dormaa-Ahenkro for the beginning of work on a multi-million-cedi eye clinic being built by the Dormaa Presbyterian Hospital. The sod-cutting ceremony climaxed a grand durbar held by the chiefs of Dormaa and the Presbyterian Health Services to commemorate the Hospital's Golden Jubilee anniversary.

The Dormaa Traditional Council donated 30 million cedis and pledged further support in cash and communal labour towards the project. Dr Bert Groaneweg of Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Holland, donated 105 million cedis on behalf of the Dormaa Hospital's foreign partners towards the project.

In a speech read for him, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. Yaw Frimpong-Manso, challenged the Church to establish measures aimed at addressing the increasing incidence of preventable health hazards in society. He noted that health problems in developing countries were mostly as a result of social, economic and environmental situations such as poor education opportunities, scarcity of health and related care, lack of resources and inequality in wealth distribution. The Moderator recommended the setting up of pragmatic mechanisms aimed at cushioning the harsh effects of these problems and making life more meaningful to the ordinary person.

He called on membership of the Church to actively involve in national programmes designed to check the spread of HIV infection in the country so as to hedge the productive youth against the menace. Rt. Rev. Frimpong-Manso called for whole-hearted compassion towards people living with HIV, saying such people still deserved to be upheld as God's creation and given the necessary hope, mercy, goodness, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Dr David Agyapong, Acting General Manager of the Hospital, expressed worry that malaria still remained the dominant cause of outpatient attendance and admissions to the Hospital, accounting for 23.5 percent of all cases.

He said since the successful implementation of the national Health Insurance Scheme in the district, outpatient attendance had tripled while in-patient admissions dropped by two per cent. He explained that because healthcare has become easily accessible, patients no longer wait for their conditions to deteriorate before being rushed to the hospital and that this has positively impacted on the general status of health in the district.

Dr Agyapong mentioned acute shortage of staff, insufficient staff accommodation and inadequate power supply to the hospital's equipment as some of the numerous debilitating problems confronting the hospital. Osagyefo Agyemang Badu, commended the Presbyterian Church for drawing basic healthcare services to the doorstep of people in the area. Past and present staff who distinguished themselves in the discharge of their duties received cash prizes, trophies and certificates of merit.