Effiduase, May 27, GNA - Saint Joseph Orthopaedic Hospital is to be upgraded into an Orthopaedic Teaching Hospital to train more surgeons, Professor Paul Nyame, Rector of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, announced on Tuesday.
Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony to construct the new facility at Effiduase, he said in that direction, the hospital would soon be linked to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Orthopaedic and Trauma Centre.
Prof Nyame said orthopaedic surgeons were few in Ghana; therefore the building of a full fledged Teaching Hospital was imperative as far as the issues of orthopaedic surgeons were concerned. He thanked the financiers for their vision in helping Ghana train more surgeons.
The two-million euro project is being funded solely by a Dutch couple, Mr and Mrs Van Cardenbough and is expected to be completed in 18 months by Antartic Construction and Engineering. It shall consists of a new theatre, a physiotherapy unit of in-patients, a casualty unit, diagnostic room's including-X-ray, CT Scans and a place for specialist and post graduate orthopaedic nursing school annexed through the facilities of the old hospital. Reverend Johannes Torwoe, Director of the St Joseph Hospital said the Centre, when completed: "shall become a centre of excellence in the healthcare delivery for the benefit of Ghana and Africa on the whole". He thanked Dr Jansen, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, from Holland who through e-mail communications got to know the hospital's critical needs, offered to assist the hospital by fallen on the Dutch couple. Rev Torwoe said, the idea to build a new hospital was mooted in 1999 during the 40th anniversary of the hospital, but due to financial constraints the project could not take off and instead the old one was rehabilitated.
Mr Joseph Van Cardenbough said he and the wife were touched by the needs of the hospital as presented to them by Dr Jansen and decided to finance a new one that would not only serve Ghana, but train surgeons to benefit whole of Africa. He thanked Daasebre Oti-Boateng, the Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Area, for his readiness to release land for the project and the Ghana Ambassador to the Netherlands, Mrs Amponsah Ababio for her support. The St Joseph Hospital until recently was the only orthopaedic hospital in Ghana.