The Board of Directors of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has given approval for the organization to invest in the Burns Centre at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

A statement issued by Mr J. Ato Kobbie, Senior Media Relation Officer of GNPC, and copied to the Ghana News Agency on Monday, said the assistance would help with the completion of the first Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for burns in Ghana, and West Africa.

“The GNPC’s decision, taken in June this year, follows an appeal by managers of the Korle Bu Burns Centre, who requested the GNPC to help deliver for the country, an ultra-modern ICU at the Centre”.

It said an escrow account had since been established for the disbursement of the funds towards the work.

The statement said “When fully operational, the rate of survival of patients, according to the Centre, is expected to increase from below 40 per cent to about 90 per cent, as is the situation in developed countries with such facilities,” it said.

The GNPC was established in 1983 by PNDC Law 64 to provide the institutional framework to support the Government's objective of providing adequate and reliable supply of petroleum products and reducing the country's dependence on crude oil imports, through the development of the country’s own petroleum resources.

The Corporation started operations in 1985, and is backed by the Petroleum (Exploration & Production) Law 1984, PNDC Law 84, which establishes the contractual relationship among the State, GNPC and prospective investors in upstream petroleum operations.