The First Lady, Mrs. Rebecca Akufo-Addo, has performed the ceremony for construction work to start on a US$10 million Maternal and Baby Unit (MBU) block for the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

The one storey building is meant to help ease the severe congestion at the main MBU of the referral facility.

The project is expected to be ready within four months and comes with three theaters, four emergency wards, five consulting rooms, space for 20 pre-delivery beds and would have the capacity to accommodate 120 babies.

Mrs. Akufo-Addo said it would create adequate space for health personnel, mothers and their babies to reduce infections and prevent deaths.

She praised corporate entities and individuals for responding to the appeal for funds in aid of the project and said it was an indication of the resolve of all Ghanaians to address a national issue.

Mr. Aboagye Gyedu, Deputy Minister of Health, said government was working frantically to secure funding for the completion of a maternal and child health building at the hospital, started 43 years ago.

As they explored ways to raise the needed money to finish the project, it was important that urgent steps were taken to deal with the severe overcrowding and it was on the basis that the intervention by the First Lady was refreshing.

He said it was going to help to significantly reduce the high rate of deaths among mothers and their newborn babies.

Dr. Joseph Akpaloo, Chief Executive of KATH said the construction of the new facility was a huge relief to the health workers, mothers and their babies. He indicated that efforts to resolve the problem of congestion at the MBU, started in 1976 when work was commenced on a new 995-bed Maternal and Children’s Block, but sadly after more than four decades, it was yet to be completed.

He thanked the First Lady, the Asantehene and the Multimedia Group for the untiring effort towards the construction of the new block.

Dr. Gyekua Plange Rhule, Head of the MBU, said the project would have huge impact on new born care at the facility.

She used the occasion to draw attention to the situation where many women after delivery struggled to settle their bills.

This, she said, had forced the management to set up a fund to help those in dire financial need and called for strong public support for the fund.