Yesterday, Tuesday 6th January 2015, I went at short verbal notice, to a small, little fanfare, but highly significant and praiseworthy event at the Maternity Block of the Korle-Bu Maternity Block. I’m glad I did. It was the commissioning of the refurbished first floor ward of the said ward. Messrs Imperial Homes Ltd, a small indigenous, young (seven year old), real estate company acting through its charity arm, the Imperial Charity Foundation had taken upon itself the burden of carrying out a total refurbishment of the entire first floor of the said block.

It was a very significant and happy event but moaner that I I’m, I’ll set out my complaints as I go along. First the programme started an unacceptably and now customarily Ghanaian, 30 minutes late and the apology rendered by the hospital’s PRO, one Mustapha, was weak, routine, empty and insincere. The speeches however, were short and crisp. Imperial Homes’ acting per Nana Ansah Kwao who stood in for their CEO, did not boast about their significant, palpable and worthy contribution towards enhancing maternal care. It was just making a contribution towards the cause of good maternal care. Their staff were not present in scores, nor were they distinguishable by any special attire. Prof. Obed of the hospital admonished hospital staff to change their attitudes to match that of the newly refurbished ward. Specifically he asked nurses to refrain from shouting at, insulting and denigrating patients, some of whom had not even used a toilet before! Prof. Nortey Deputy CEO who deputized for the hospital’s CEO was full of praise for the significant gesture whilst the Deputy Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs. Della Ocloo was genuinely profuse and gracious in her appreciation of Imperial Homes’ kind act. I liked her. She sounded honest. My second complaint is that the CEO of Korle-Bu, my friend Dr. Gilbert Buckle and the Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Mrs. Nana Oye Lithur were absent. Maternal care is so, so important, so fundamental to our existence. The excuses given for their absence were unconvincing. This was an important event! There was no ‘big man’ from the Ministry of Health. Sad and Puzzling isn’t it? Maybe if the President had attended it would have been entirely different.

But the handing over of the completely refurbished First Floor Ward of the Maternity Block was, thankfully, not about personalities or fanfare. It was not advertised by large, wasteful billboards featuring photos of sector ministers or grinning mayors, large, pointless buntings crudely draped everywhere, drumming and dancing, stupid, long, flattering and self congratulatory winding ‘achievement’ speeches and praise singing, rows of state owned V8 Toyota Landcruisers, rows of chiefs, politicians, `sharing of “thank you for coming envelopes” and other wasteful and avoidable, create loot and share type expenses which characterize our increasingly shambolic and unrefined state functions and allegiance buying, handing over of public toilets, 3 room classroom blocks, and commissioning of roads and as recently shown on TV, in the bumbled commissioning of the Adenta water project. Work did not come to an unnecessary halt as is typical of even small state functions. It was a small, solemn (as it should be), simple, dignified, business-like event. There was a simple bunting at the entrance to the hall where the speeches were read, a few buntings behind the high table and a few balloons and a small banner announcing the occasion at the entrance door to the ward. It was, as I said earlier, plain, simple and dignified. The absence of cacophonous fanfare notwithstanding, one could sense the relief, joy and restrained excitement of the 70 or so nurses and other hospital staff that crammed the small hall. They will be happy to work in such conditions. Mothers and their newborns will recover quicker in such surroundings. Ask the medical staff...
But physical refurbishments aside, the commendable thoughtfulness of Imperial Homes’ action is manifest in their choice of Mary Opoku-Agyeman, a 96 year old midwife as the star of that morning’s handing over ceremony. They had gone to considerable lengths to find out worthy women in the field of midwifery and maternal delivery and care and settled on her. They did not know her and were not related to her. She wasn’t their grandma or aunt. She’s been in the business since 1950. An elegant, eloquent lady with clear thoughts who was still active in maternal care, she repeated her sadness that when complicated cases were sent to Korle-Bu, our bastion of medical care, the feedback they got with regard to Korle-Bu’s handling of these cases was “not very encouraging”. Lamenting the fact that no pain equaled the pangs of childbirth, she charged the nurses to sit up. I missed out on a photo op with this graceful, gracious lady. One wing of the ward will be named after her while the other wing will be aptly named Imperial Wing. I humbly suggest that Imperial Homes’, in concert with the Korle-Bu authorities, erect a small bust of this remarkable woman at the entry of the ward to immortalize her contribution to midwifery.

I must now dwell on the extensive, expensive refurbishment work carried out by Imperial Homes. First they tore out the entire first floor from top to bottom. Out came doors, windows, ceilings, floors, bathrooms, wiring, plumbing, everything. These have been replaced with new electrical wiring, plumbing, new ceilings, new doors, new windows, bathrooms retiled, new baths, showers, water-closets, new floor tiles, new air-conditioners and fans, new reception furniture, a new kitchen and new non-slip tiled floors. Several flat screen TVs will entertain patients. The entire 996 square meter area of the first floor of the Korle-Bu maternity ward has been given a thorough, painstaking, radical and complete makeover. And they’ve pledged to help maintain it.

It’s a huge, worthy, commendable effort involving considerable financial outlay, time and energy, and Imperial Homes have my unreserved and deserved praise. I only saw the finished article, and all in a 20 minute spell, but I have an inkling of the frustrations and niggling challenges they went through to make this come together in a year. From internal bureaucracy, dealing with know-everything academics, to having to minimize inconvenience to patients, staff and visitors to the building whilst work went on, Imperial Homes deserve to feel triumphant, elated and proud at their achievement. Their small plaque at the entrance of the ward is nondescript and belies their great feat.

Decent maternal healthcare is central to our existence. Our earthly life begins in maternity. It’s crucial. My three younger sisters were born in that block. I lived in Korle-Bu as a child in the mid-sixties to early seventies. My father was a doctor and later a lecturer there. Back then everything was shiny and worked. Now it’s so different. It’s depressing, the condition of that building. It’s rotting away. Our leaders and their civilian cronies are stealing monies which can build ‘Korle-Bu’s’ in every region. They don’t care. Theirs is to plunder and live lavishly at the expense of the suffering Ghanaian and buy palaces in Europe and the Gulf. God, punish them!! It’s sad when corporate Ghana is called upon to help institutions like Korle-Bu when greedy bastards in government connive with criminal businessmen to fleece Ghana, but until some revolution takes away our current crop of thieving leaders and politicians from the scene, meagre donations and handouts from companies and NGO’s look like the major way of getting anything done in our hospitals.

Imperial Homes worthy effort is striking because it is a fledgling in Ghana’s real estate business. Without intending to, this young company has thrown the gauntlet to established corporate Ghana. My plea to companies like Imperial Homes who carry out corporate social responsibility programmes; When you spend your resources on projects such as these, do not let our politicians take centre stage and strut their stuff at your event and steal your thunder!! Imperial Homes unwittingly didn’t allow that. I salute them for that.

When I left the function I was filled with nostalgia and went to my old stomping ground, 32 Slater Avenue in Korle-Bu where I lived as a kid. The mango trees that yielded several large sacks of mangoes every year: 7 of them; still stood proud. The royal palms at the entrance to the house were still alive though two in the lovely garden were dead. The lawn was still, in spite of the severe Harmattan, quite green. The other trees still looked familiar. Great memories flooded back and though our quaint former home, unlike the ones that our neighbours, the Boohene’s and Prof. Francis Nkrumah lived in back then, is in a state of neglect and disrepair, the untended garden, ‘our garden’ still has an alluring charm and beauty quite beyond compare 40 years on. Maybe if Blucrest makes some money this year, we can seek the consent of Korle-Bu to refurbish that building and make it match the garden...

I wanted to write a “happy’’ article. Somehow the reality and goings on in Ghana always wrecks things. But I’m happy, smiling and very proud of Imperial Homes and the Imperial Charity Foundation and their indelible and worthy contribution to the provision of dignified maternal care in Ghana.
Ayekoo!! God bless you!!
Johnny Blukoo-Allotey,
Accra, Ghana.