Promasidor Ghana (PGH), a food manufacturing company, has provided financial support of GH¢489,900 to the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to fund the life-saving heart surgery for 10 patients.

These patients are in dire need of the surgery but do not have the funds.

The company also donated some essential medical equipment to the Kaneshie Polyclinic in Accra to help stock the hospital’s theatre.

The equipment includes 50 oxygen masks, two patient trolleys, two myomectomy instruments, two caesarean section instruments, a patient monitor, a suction machine and tube, a bulb syringe and diathermy pencils.

This will help retool the theatre for the hospital to undertake skilled delivery and other special services.

The gesture is a community support initiative under the Promasidor Community Impact Drive to support sustainable projects that drive social change, improve quality of life and address pressing societal needs of vulnerable groups.

Mr Festus Tettey, the Managing Director (MD) of Promasidor Ghana, at the presentation ceremony in Accra, said the donations formed part of activities marking the company’s 25th anniversary celebration.

It was also part of its commitment to assisting the good people of Ghana, who have supported the operations of the company for the past 25 years.

He said the support to the two health institutions was in line with the Sustainable Development Goal Three, which touched on good health and well-being of people.

Promasidor had always been intentional about supporting its catchment community and bringing relief to people in dire need of surgeries but do not have the funds.

“From our humble beginnings in 1999 in this same community, we have grown exponentially in product line and extensions,” Mr Tettey said.

“Charity, they say, begins at home and so we decided to mark our 25th anniversary by first equipping the health centre in our immediate surrounding with the needed medical supplies to make life and health care delivery more comfortable for all.”

Last year the company donated GHS 335,700 for patients who needed heart surgery in line with its community support drive.

“That is the least we can do to support the good people who have supported our business for the past 25 years,” he said.

Dr Kow Entsua-Mensah, the Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, expressed appreciation to Promasidor for the gesture, saying 17 patients had so far benefited from Promasidor’s support.

The money would go a long way to save patients who could not afford their heart surgeries, he said.

About 99 per cent of the patients at the Centre could not afford to fully pay their surgery fees, making them rely on financial aid from philanthropists and benevolent organisations, like Promasidor, he said.

Dr Entsua-Mensah said most of the patients were young people who needed to finance their operations and called on other organisations to go to their aid.

Dr Jacob Agyei Larbi, Acting Medical Director, Kaneshie Polyclinic, said the medical equipment would help in the retooling efforts of the medical theatre to effectively undertake medical operations.

He said due to a lack of equipment, the theatre could not undertake the required services and had to refer patients to the Korle-Bu and Greater Accra Regional hospitals.

“We have an obstetrician who can operate but we don’t have a theatre, so as of now we are not operating. We want to gather equipment starting from this to retool the theatre to start operations,” he said.

“We made a distress call to PGH and we appreciate your timely response with this generous donation. We say a big thank you to the leadership of Promasidor.”

Promasidor Ghana launched its first production in 1999, providing quality food products including its first brand, Cowbell, to consumers.

The business introduced Onga powder variant of food seasoning in 2003, followed by Onga Shrimp tablet in 2011.

Other product lines are the Miksi dairy product and Yumvita infant cereals in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

Meanwhile, Anita Ayisibea Adu, a student, and Benjamin Clinton Tagoe, a fire officer, who were beneficiaries of the donation to the Cardiothoracic Centre, expressed their gratitude to Promasidor for supporting them for their heart surgeries.