Koforidua, Feb. 18, GNA - The St Joseph's Orthopaedic Hospital at Effiduase-Koforidua on Wednesday launched an annual programme to raise funds towards the rehabilitation works of its facilities estimated at 326,000 dollars.

The first phase of the project involved the rehabilitation and renovation of the Out-Patients Department (OPD) and the Administrative Block of the hospital established over 40 years ago by the St John Hospitaller Brothers Order of Spain.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Administrator of the hospital, Jose Viadero, said of the amount, the Manos Unidas, a Spanish NGO, was providing 216,000 dollars to cover the cost of the OPD's renovation while the hospital had raised over 50,000 dollars from its own resources, leaving 50,000 dollars which it hopes to mobilise locally. The Medical Director of the Hospital, Rev Dr Victor Nettery, who launched a raffle as part of the programme, explained that it had become necessary to raise funds locally to procure modern equipment due to donor fatigue.

Dr Wilfred Larbi Addo, a general surgeon at the hospital, said it was the desire of the management to develop the hospital to become a centre of excellence in orthopaedic health care in the West African sub-region.