President commissions phase two of UGMC
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned the second phase of the University of Ghana Medical Centre Limited (UGMC), gearing the health facility towards holistic service provision.
The second phase scales up the status of the centre to a quaternary care institution, as it would now provide highly specialized, experimental, and uncommon diagnostics and surgical procedures.
Phase two of the medical Centre, constructed with an Israeli bank grant of $217 million, includes 42 specialist and subspecialist clinics, a cardiothoracic surgery centre and a cardiac catheterization lab.
It also includes an eight-unit apartment for critical staff, a biohazard waste treatment building, a waste dumpster shed an oncology ward, neurosurgery with neurology ward and an intensive care unit, an assisted reproductive technology center, private wards, paediatric surgery unit, and an MRI and Dental service units.
President Akufo-Addo said his Administration was committed to providing Ghanaians and residents with befitting health infrastructures and world-class health care.
He pointed out that the UGMC’s mainstay was to deliver healthcare, adding that the facility played a pivotal role in managing complicated referrals from other hospitals in the country.
The President mentioned that the Centre also had provision for walk-in patients who seek specialist or consultant attention and delivered health services in the areas of trauma and orthopaedics, urology, ear nose and throat care, cardiology, and dermatology, accident and emergency services, pain management, among others.
Additionally, the Centre has a medical training and simulation center which will as a national facility for the training of health professionals across the country.
“It is equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment capable of simulating various disease conditions to enable our health professionals to have comprehensive hands-on experience,” the President said.
President Akufo-Addo also mentioned that the second phase of the health facility included investment and business models to make the UGMC self-sustaining over five years.
He expressed the government’s commitment to ensuring the availability of the requisite personnel to provide services at the Centre and thanked all key stakeholders who worked to ensure the project became a success.
Dr Darius Kofi Osei, Chief Executive, UGMC, disclosed that the Centre now had three focal areas; the Medical Simulation and Training Centre, Clinical Services Section and Medical and Scientific Research Centre.
With the completion of the second phase, he said the facility’s forefront Medical Simulation and Training Centre is the biggest training centre in West Africa.
“This Training Centre is a nationally recognized multi-disciplinary academic Centre and is committed to achieving excellence in medical education using high-quality and innovative computer-based simulations.
“Our 1000-bed Clinical Services Section of the UGMC is committed to the promotion of favourable health outcomes through innovative, customer-centered, cost-effective, and high-quality processes. We are currently running almost 40 specialty and sub-specialty level clinics from the humble beginning of running three general service OPD Clinics.
Dr Osei informed the government that the Centre needed to be resourced with the requisite infrastructure to be able to deliver more sub-specialized services.
He said the centre needed a helipad to assist us in the evacuation of trauma cases to boost medical tourism.
Additionally, the Centre also needed the setting up of a Radiotherapy Centre for cancer treatment, an infectious disease center, accommodation for specialists and other critical staff and official vehicles for the center.
Source: GNA