Sunyani (B/A), July 12, GNA - The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in collaboration with the Sunyani Regional Hospital would provide free surgical services for cleft babies at the children's ward of the Sunyani regional hospital.

In a statement on the programme, scheduled to begin July 16 to 20 this year, Professor Peter Donkor of KATH appealed to parents of cleft babies in Brong Ahafo to take full advantage of the programme and make their babies with deformities available for correction. He explained that cleft babies were born with split lips and deformed palates, which if not corrected through surgery usually impaired their feeding and speech.

"A number of babies affected by this abnormality fail to thrive due to feeding difficulties and susceptibility to infections", Prof. Donkor added.

He said the KATH cleft clinic was made up of paediatricians, nurses, speech therapists, maxillofacial and plastic surgeons, who would join their Sunyani counterparts to undertake the programme. Prof. Donkor noted that most parents of cleft babies were unable to access cleft services due to the cost involved, which ranged between two million and three million cedis (GHC200-300) per surgery, adding, the first day of the programme would be used for screening whilst the remaining days would be devoted to surgeries.

"The KATH-Sunyani regional hospital collaboration will help bring smiles on the faces of families who will only pay a token fee of 100,000 cedis (GHC10) to cover the cost of laboratory investigations", he said. Prof. Donkor said a similar exercise was held last year at KATH where more than 100 babies benefited and expressed the hope that parents of cleft babies would patronize the programme to ensure its success.