Operation Smile provide free surgery to cleft victims in Ho

Before and after surgery of a cleft victim

Some  154  patients with various forms cleft conditions, have had their deformities corrected last week through a free medical operation undertaken by the world acclaimed medical charity, ‘Operation Smile’ at the Volta regional hospital in Ho.

The five day medical operation which had a 36,000 dollar support from Unibank, involved a team of 86 medical and non-medical volunteers who worked to put smiles on the faces of the patients, aged between 6 months and 73 years, with children dominating. 

Cleft lips are lips that are not fully formed and cleft palates are holes in the roof of the mouth. This, experts say can create speech abnormalities and breathing problems sometimes resulting in death.

According to Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, leader of the surgical team, a total of seven surgeons operated on the patients drawn from various parts of the country within the five days. 

“Seven surgeons were operating simultaneously for the one week. We ensure that we do the young children early in the day and the older one later in the day. It was very tedious but we have about the successful outcome of the operations.”

Volta Regional Hospital gets dialysis centre

inside the dialysis unit

After almost 15 years of its existence, the Volta Regional hospital in Ho has finally gotten a dialysis unit to cater for patients with kidney problems.

Kidney patients in need of dialysis services hitherto have to travel to Accra every week for the service due to the absence of that unit at the regional hospital, which is the major referral health facility in the entire region.

Dialysis machine

A dialysis machine is thought of as an artificial kidney which  filter a patient's blood to remove excess water and waste products when the kidneys are damaged, dysfunctional, or missing.

A campaign launched by the Asogli queen mothers Association to get such a machine at the hospital, had a favorable response from D.Med Healthcare AG Limited, a leading  provider of  medical equipment and consumables, which donated four dialysis machines to the hospital at a cost of GHc 200,000.

Also, indigenous oil marketing company, GOIL Energy Ghana procured a GHc 28,000 water treatment plant for the unit to enable the machines function.

Speaking at a ceremony to commission the unit,  the coordinator of Asogli queen mothers Association, 

Mama Atratoh II, the challenges kidney patients in region go through weekly to access the treatment elsewhere with its associated cost and risk prompted her outfit to embark on this initiative.

Uhas spearheads campaign on healthy living among Ghanaians

Uhas students on a health walk

The Head of Nutrition and Dietetics  Department of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Eunice Berko-Nartey has advised Ghanaians to  adopt routine physical exercise in order to minimize the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.

According to her, diseases such as stroke and hypertension is on the rise especially among  young adults due to bad eating habits and lack of regular physical exercise.

She therefore asked everyone to pay critical attention to their wellbeing by adopting healthy lifestyle.

Mrs. Berko-Nartey was Speaking to Starr news  during community campaign organized by UHAS dubbed   'Healthy Eating Advocacy Drive' in Ho.

The campaign started with a massive walk by students, residents and personnel of the security agencies through the principal streets of the regional capital and was climaxed at the forecourt of the regional hospital with health screening for participants.

GMA Strike: Private hospitals brace up for more patients

Private health facilities across the Volta region are bracing up to contain the excess number of patients who will troop to the facilities for medical care due to the ongoing strike by doctors in the government hospitals.

The strike declared by the Ghana Medical Association last week, is set to take a deep bite on patients who will turnout at the various government health facilities, as the doctors in region withdrawn out patients services.

This, situation is therefore expected to put pressure on both private and faith-based facilities, as patients throng these facilities for treatment.

Managers of such facilities have, however expressed their readiness to carter for the anticipated high turnouts in the coming days, when Volta Online toured some of the facilities within the Ho municipality.

Elorm Ocloo-Dzaba of Foresight Medical centre and Mawuena Letsa of Miracle Life Hospital, both told Volta Online in separate interviews that their outfits are prepared for any eventualities.

"We are ready for any event, whatever the case… our staff are on standby to attend to both NHIS and non NHIS clients,” they assured.

80 Community Health Volunteers Empowered in Volta

Some of the Volunteers at the Training

About 80 volunteers have been empowered and equipped to revive the Community Health Volunteer (CHV) program by the Ghana Health Service in the Volta Region of Ghana.

The volunteers will serve as the first point of call in increasing access to child and maternal health services to the public, particularly in the rural communities.  

The CHV program which is being re-activated in the Ketu South Municipality is based on the Community-Based Health Planning Services (CHPS) Zone concept.

Under the CHPS zone concept communities are strategically mapped out and provided with health professionals as a first point of contact on all health issues, including health education. The health professionals also partner community volunteers and other stakeholders to improve access to health care by focusing on prevention and ensuring proper referral protocols.

Dormant Health Volunteers

The Ketu South Disease Control Officer, Dovaid Agbokpe noted that the CHV programme has become dormant for a while due to challenges such as, lack of motivation and support, monitoring and supervision.

He therefore described the re-activation as timely to reverse the declining rate of child and maternal mortality and epidemics which is usually due to ignorance and delays in access to appropriate health. He added that CHPS Zone concept will also be strengthened saying, “If successful, the re-activation is expected to be replicated in other parts of the region in the near future.”

The re-activation is part of the Improving Maternal and Child Health (IMCH) Project being undertaken by the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in the Keta Municipal, Ketu-South Municipal and Ketu-North District assemblies.

Madam Kim Heunghee of KOICA presenting a Certificate to a Volunteer

Training of Volunteers

He said the 80 volunteers were recruited from 21 communities under nine CHPS Zones put into two batches of 40 to undertake a week each of intensive residential training at Denu.  

The training which comprised both theory and practical among other things bordered on conflict management, antenatal care, concerns regarding child deliveries, immunisation, family planning, nature and symptoms of diseases including malaria, anaemia, cholera and disease surveillance. They were also given logistics, tools and incentives boost their morale and commitment to the work.

Monitoring of Volunteers

Mr. Agbokpe said a monitoring team comprising regional and district teams were being formed to partake in the monthly meetings at the CHPS Zones as a measure to constantly monitor the CHVs. This he said was because; the volunteers will be a strategic link between health workers at the CHPS zones and the community members by giving timely information to both sides.

He commended KOICA for the initiative and support in providing the volunteers with food packages, transport allowances, call credits, raincoats, bags, training wares among others, to sustain their interest.

Madam Kim Heunghee, Project Manager of KOICA, disclosed that under the two year (2014-2016) IMCH Project, the beneficiary districts enjoys supply of equipment, staff retraining and the building of a midwifery school at Keta by the end of 2016 among others.

Robbers Attack Private Clinic in Ho

Foresight Clinic

Four armed robbers last Wednesday night stormed the Foresight Clinic in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital taking away money and properties. According to an eyewitness and a victim, Wilson Ablormeti the incident which happened between 8:45pm and 9:00pm led to the loss of about GH₵1000.00, working tools and personal belonging of staff, including mobile phones and two laptops.

Wilson Ablormeti said he and the security man and one other person were assaulted by the masked robbers while his mobile phone and money was also collected.

Robbery Details

He explained that at about 8:45 a man entered the clinic to visit his wife and daughter which the security man and other nurses clarified that there was no such admission.

The man was asked to call the wife and verify her location. The man replied that he had done that and the wife was still insisting that she was at foresight Clinic.

Just when the man was being persuaded to leave, four masked men charged into the clinic and joined the man. The gun wielding men requested for the mobile phones and monies on the about seven staff members at the facility.

More Private Hospitals Needed

Mrs Victoria Letsa, Dr. Atsu Seake-Kwawu and Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa

The Ho Municipal Director of Health Services, Dr. Atsu Seake-Kwawu has emphasized the need for more genuine private hospitals to increase access to quality health care in Ghana.

According to him, such increase will reduce pressure on the existing inadequate government hospitals and also  create jobs for the increasing unemployed youth. He was however quick to add that such facilities should go through the required procedure before starting operations.

He noted that “when we have more recognized private health facilities it will reduce the pressure on the government ones and also increase access to quality health care.”

Dr. Seake-Kwawu made the observation recently during the 20^th Anniversary celebration of the Miracle Life Hospital (MLH), a private hospital in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital. The Hospital started as a clinic in December 1994 by Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa and his wife who was by then a nurse, Victoria Letsa.

MPs assess Ebola Preparedness at Aflao border

Regional minister (in cap) with Fritz Baffour (m) and other Cittee members

Members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Defence and Interior have paid a day’s working visit to the Aflao border in the Ketu-south Municipality of the Volta region to assess the security situation and the necessary preparations put in place to prevent the deadly Ebola virus from entering the country.

The border is the major transit point to Ghana’s eastern neighbours of Togo, Benin and Nigeria, which has reported cases of the disease that has plagued three other West African countries including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Briefing the Committee members on the preparations to combat the deadly virus, the Volta Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Joseph Teye Nuertey said since news on the outbreak of the disease broke in April, the Health authorities  and other stakeholders has embark on consistent public education programmes on the disease as well as training of frontline health officials.

He disclosed that 20 Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) which the region received, were distributed among the Port Health Department at the border and two hospitals out of six health facilities designated to deal with the disease. The two are the Aflao Government hospital and the Regional hospital in Ho, excluding the Jasikan, Hohoe, Sogakofe, Nkwanta hospitals because of the inadequacy of the PPEs.

Xcholera: Massive Cleanup Exercise In Ho on Wednesday

In a move to curb the fast spread of the current cholera outbreak in the Ho Municipality, the Municipal authorities have announced a massive cleanup exercise, scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday.

The exercise which begins in the morning between 6am- 10am, will see residents pour onto the streets in their various suburbs to clear weeds, desilt and choked drains, under the coordination of assembly members and chiefs.

To ensure full participation from both formal and informal sector workers, Assembly officials have disclosed that the central market will be under lock and key, whiles shops owners, public and corporate institutions have also been directed not to open their premises for business until after the cleanup exercise.

Authorities further noted that, residents and institutions who failed to adhere to the directive will be appropriately sanctioned.

Last week, the Assembly fumigated all public toilets following reports of four confirmed cases of cholera in the Municipality. Whiles public education on cholera prevention still continues on the airwaves.

GRAFT Foundation Provide free Surgery to the underprivileged

A patient being prepared for the Surgery

The Ghana Reconstruction of Anomaly and Trauma Fund popularly referred to as the GRAFT Foundation , a non-governmental charity medical organisation, as part of  its Hope Projects,  have restored the lives of 106 underprivileged persons in the Volta region, who were suffering from various medical deformities and complicated anomalies acquired from birth or accident.

The NGO led by its founder Dr. Kwame Abrokwaa Yankyera with his team of volunteer Ghanaian Plastic Surgeons, Anesthetics, Urologists, Orthodontists and Nurses conducted free Reconstructive Plastic Surgeries on patients (including babies), some of whom travelled from Kete-Krachie, Dambai, Nkwanta and other parts of the region to the Volta Regional Hospital in Ho.

The exercise which begun on August1-9^th, saw the team work tirelessly to rectify  anomalies such as, Cleft lip and Palate, Burn related complications, (Ectropion and Contracture) Syndactaly (fused fingers), Tumours and Swellings as well as Genital Filariasis (Abnormal Swelling of the Scrotum).

Dr. Kwame Abrokwaa Yankyera, who is also head of the Plastic Surgery and Burns department of the 37 Military Hospital in an exclusive Whatsapp message to this reporter, said ‘We finished surgeries (with the 106^th person) on Saturday, 9^th August at exactly 4:19PM.. We take glory not in the numbers but giving hope to these people and making them productive again, all to the glory of God’.

Vodafone ‘Healthfest’ train hit Ho with massive turnouts

 Dozens of residents in the Ho municipality of the Volta region thronged the forecourts of the Asogli State palace at Ho Bankoe, where the Vodafone Ghana ‘healthfest’ train made a stopover at the weekend to provide free health care.

The initiative put together by the Vodafone Ghana foundation, saw mostly local paramedics screened hundreds of persons including the aged, some of whom reported to the venue as early as 5am.

The screenings were done for ailments such as Diabetes, Hepatitis B, Tuberculosis and HIV in a virtual health post setup, which has sections for registration, Body Mass Index, Blood Pressure Checks, Laboratory, Consultation and Pharmacy as well as a gymnasium and kids play corner.

The almost 800 patrons were also taking through health education on various lifestyle diseases and HIV.

Mr Courage Botchway the regional Data Officer at the National HIV Control Programme, spoke about importance of knowing ones HIV status, so that carriers, including pregnant women could be put on routine lifesaving treatment.

Mr Daniel Asiedu, Corporate Communications Manager of Vodafone, described the massive turnout as ‘very impressive and overwhelming’ and said the Healthfest is another indication of the telecom giant’s commitment to bringing quality health care to the door step of underprivileged Ghanaians.

According to him Vodafone’s health programmes including the popular television series ‘Healthline’ is aimed at bridging distance and cost between the people and health care delivery.