Diaspora News of Monday, 23 April 2007

Source: GNA

Italy Apam citizens donate ambulance to hospital

Apam April 23, GNA - The Ghana Water Company has been urged to remedy the fault for the Apam Catholic Hospital to get regular water supply.

Dr. Ebenezer Amekah, Acting Medical Superintendent, speaking at a ceremony during which he received an ambulance donated to the hospital by the Italy branch of the Apam Korye Kuw, a benevolent society of Apam citizens, identified patients absconding with medical bills and acute water shortage as the major problems facing the facility. He said this year alone, the health facility had lost over 30 million cedis through absconding.

The Acting Medical Superintendent stated that even though General Electric (GE) of the United States had provided an overhead reservoir, water had not flown into the tank for the past 13 months while the hospital spent a chunk of its income on private tanker service providers.

Dr. Amekah thanked the donors for the ambulance and said the gesture would go a long way in saving the lives of referred patients who had to be conveyed to other health facilities. Mr. Henry Eyi-Bondzie, President of the Association, commended the staff of the hospital for their dedication in spite of the numerous problems facing the institution.

He said Caritas; a charity organisation in Italy donated the ambulance to the Korye Kuw and gave the assurance that the society would continue to support the hospital to solve problems confronting it. Nana Edu Effrim X, Apaahene appealed to non-resident citizens to support the registration of needy and vulnerable citizens with the district health insurance scheme and to help provide accommodation for nurses of the hospital.

The Chief appealed to them to arrange exchange programmes for the nurses to improve their competence. In a related development, the society has donated five computers with accessories worth 50,000 dollars to basic schools in the town.