A new ultra modern hospital, located in the heart of the Shai Osudoku district; the largest in the Greater Accra is ready for commissioning.

The hospital is designed to be capable of expansion from 120 beds to 200 beds, an avante-garde design, with a complete therapeutic environment to aid patient recovery.

Could this facility have come anytime better considering the following reasons below?

1.The Shai-Osudoku District according to the 2010 Population and Housing Census is 51,913 and of this 48.7 percent are males and 51.3 percent are females. Health care accessibility to them include two health centers, five CHPS compound, a private maternity home, a quasi government hospital and one district hospital, in Dodowa its capital, situated in the South­ eastern part of Ghana.

2. The Shai­ Osudoku District Hospital was established in 1970 as a health post by the people of Shai and handed over to the Ministry of Health.

4. The facility advanced from a Health Centre in 1985 and finally to a district hospital in the mid­year of 2009.

5. The hospital between 2011 to 2015 recorded no maternal death as a result of its “Zero Tolerance for Maternal Mortality policy” initiated in that year.

The Total Fertility rate for the District is 3.0 and a General Fertility rate of 92.1 births per 1,000 women aged 15-49 years. The Crude birth rate is 23.5. The Crude Death rate for the District is 6.1 per 1,000.

6. The hospital has six wards, with 52 beds, and one operating theatre.

7. Staff strength of 208, nine doctors, three Physician’s Assistants, two pharmacists, 13 midwives, 87 General Nurses, five Public Health Nurses, 11 Community Health Nurses, four Psychiatric nurses and five health aids, health care

8. It provides other services such as Hypertension Clinic, Diabetic Clinic, Ultrasound Care, ENT Care, Dental Clinic, ART Clinic, Family Planning, Community Psychiatry, Eye Clinic, Theatre, Maternity and ante natal Clinic.

These services are offered to the people in Shai Osudoku, and its environs stretching to Ashalley Botwe, Adjirigano and Nmai Dzor.

10. Attendance at the hospital has more than tripled from 13,080 to over 42,000 between 2009 and 2012. Hospital attendance increased further by 50 % in 2015.

The District’s population constitutes 1.3 percent of the Regions population. Also about 76.7 percent of the Districts population resides in rural communities.

The District has a sex ratio of 95 and an age dependency ratio of 76.4.

10. Medical Superintendent for the hospital presently is Dr Kennedy Brightson and he loves fufu.

The complete project

The new Shai Osu Doku district hospital forms part of a $175 million between the Ministry of Health and NMS Infrastructure Ltd investment to deliver six new district hospitals to raise the standards of health care at the regional and district levels throughout country.

The programme includes new district hospitals to be developed in Sekondi, Kumawu, Abetifi, Fomena and Garu-Tempane with seventh hospital – the European Hospital in the Takoradi Metropolitan District – to be upgraded and re-equipped.