Tropical Cables and Conductor Limited as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility has donated a new uroflow machine worth over $10,000 to the Surgical unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

This is to support the treatment of men with prostate issues.

Speaking at the donation ceremony, Human Resource and Administration Manager of Tropical Cables, Andy Mensah, said the local indigenous company had been supporting Korle Bu to provide the kind of services the country requires of them as the premier teaching hospital.

“We cannot expect more from the hospital and expect them to foot the kind of bills they have so we are doing our bit.

“This machine is critical in the treatment of prostate cancer and they have only one which they were using both for treatment and at the same time for teaching so we found it important to add one,” he stated.

Mr Mensah urged all Ghanaians to support Tropical Cables by patronizing their products and services, stating that “the more we have many Ghanaians patronising us, the more we can support such institutions.”
For his part, the Head of the Surgical Department and Professor of Urology, Dr James Edward Mensah, expressed his gratitude to Tropical Cables for the donation.

“We are extremely grateful. We are a teaching hospital and we have three objectives which are treating patients, training the next generation of specialists and conducting research so we need such machines to help in our mandate,” he stated.

He said the donation would help patients receive treatment at a lower cost.

“We are in a country where there are a lot of financial challenges so most of our patients cannot afford the true cost of the treatment but the donation we have received will help provide the service at an affordable cost to them.

“With this machine, if a man cannot urinate, if your prostate has blocked your urine flow, hardly will we cut to remove it, we can remove the middle part without cutting you and this require expensive equipment and our patients cannot pay fully for it.

“This is why we need the assistance of benevolent organisations so that we can make the service available to people who cannot afford it. Anytime we receive a donation, it means a patient who cannot afford is going to have his surgery,” he explained.

Dr Mensah therefore encouraged all companies to consider supporting the hospital.

“We are not asking for money, just support us in buying some of these equipment. The government is doing its best but there is little it can do alone.

“At Korle Bu, we do not turn anybody away and that is why the place is always crowded and this means that we will need support from all companies,” he stated.

He said the department currently had over 300 patients waiting to have their surgeries and the new machine would help greatly in this regard.