Savelugu: The Government of Canada has donated medical equipment and supplies to the Savelugu Municipal Hospital in the Northern Region to improve quality healthcare for women, newborns, and adolescents.
According to Ghana News Agency, the equipment includes adult weighing scales, delivery beds, an autoclave machine, baby cots, a blood pressure machine, delivery instrument sets/kits, manual vacuum aspiration kits, blood pressure cuffs, maternity/admission beds, mobile oxygen machines/cylinders, neonatal ambu bags, nebulizers for the maternity ward, and palpation beds. Additional supplies consist of pulse oximeter speculums, suturing kits, vacuum (suction) machines, drip stands, newborn weighing scales, pressure pumps, ward screens, overbed tables, essential medicines, and scrubs.
The support was provided through the Power to Choose project, implemented by Oxfam in Ghana and its partners, including Norsaac, with funding from Global Affairs Canada. It is expected to enhance maternal, newborn, sexual, and reproductive healthcare services and contribute to Ghana's quest for universal health coverage.
Madam Fran§oise Nduwimana, the Head of Cooperation, High Commission of Canada in Ghana, emphasized Canada's commitment to improving the health, dignity, and well-being of women and girls through strategic partnerships during a brief ceremony to hand over the equipment to the hospital authorities at Savelugu.
Madam Charity Azantilow, the Savelugu Municipal Director of Health, described the donation as timely, highlighting the hospital's ongoing critical shortages of equipment, particularly in its labor and maternity wards. She assured that the donated items would be properly maintained through a preventive maintenance schedule to ensure their longevity.
Mr. Alhassan Fuseini, Savelugu Municipal Chief Executive, commended Canada and Oxfam for their intervention, noting that improved healthcare is critical to the municipality's socio-economic development.