President Akufo-Addo has cut the sod for the construction of the €38 million Urology and Nephrology Centre of Excellence, also at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The project is being funded by Raiffeisen Bank International AG Ltd of Austria, with OeKB Group, also from Austria, providing insurance cover of €4,666,950.
Once completed, it will offer advanced treatment for persons with genito-urinary conditions, chronic and acute kidney failures, as well as nephrology services such as kidney transplants.
The two (2) Storey Urology and Nephrology Centre will have a thirty-one (31) suite dialysis station for persons with kidney disorders, and seventy (70) beds for genito-urinary patients.
The Centre will also provide out-patient services, and serve as a resource base to conduct research into urology and nephrology cases.
The President was confident that the construction of these facilities at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital will put Korle Bu “in a strong position to give meaning to medical tourism services to neighboring countries, thereby increasing its revenue base to expand services”.
In February 2014, the government has engaged an Austrian firm under a public-private partnership to construct a urology center of excellence at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital by the end of the year.
This came to light when a medical team from the Transplant Links Community (TLC) of the University of Birmingham Hospital called on former President John Mahama at the Flagstaff House, Kanda.
Led by Dr. Charlotte Osafo, Head of the Renal Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the team is in the country to perform three live donor kidney transplants on gratis. The team has performed 12 of such operations since 2008.
In Ghana, kidney-related diseases are said to be on the ascendancy and the transplant is seen as the best way of treating it, as opposed to long-term dialysis.
The development of live donor kidney transplantation at Korle Bu, under the auspices of TLC, therefore, offers a lifeline to patients with chronic kidney failure.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
