New Korle Bu Nephrology Centre ready for operation
Work on a new Urology and Nephrology Centre of Excellence at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) in Accra has been completed.
The €38-million project was funded by the government as part of its commitment to deliver universal health coverage (UHC) and overall quality health care for all. The three-storey facility has a 31-bed dialysis suite for persons with kidney disorders and 70 beds for genito-urinary patients.
Other sections at the centre include outpatients, diagnostic and treatment, in-patient services, administration and a training room. This came to light when the Minister of Health designate, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, paid a working visit to the hospital yesterday.
It formed part of his scheduled visits to key health projects and interventions by the government. Dr Okoe-Boye, a former Board Chairman of the KBTH, is also the President’s Representative with Oversight Responsibility for the ministry, which is in line with Article 58 of the 1992 Constitution.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KBTH, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, conducted the President’s Representative around the facility. The team also visited a refurbished Fevers Unit which had been transformed into a modern infectious disease centre.
Significance
Dr Okoe-Boye said the facility would offer advanced treatment to persons with genito-urinary conditions, chronic and acute kidney failures, as well as nephrology services such as kidney transplants.
“It is common knowledge that there is a lack of specialised care both at the primary and tertiary levels when it comes to the practice of Urology and Nephrology in the country which needs to be addressed.
“In response to this, a proposal was initially designed as a public, private partnership (PPP) model to fund the construction of the facility. “Under the PPP, the investor was going to run the facility until they had recouped their investment before handing over,” he said.
However, Dr Okoe-Boye said that the government, recognising the importance of such a project decided to renegotiate and revise the model of payment. “The government, in 2017, decided to replace this model with an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) Turnkey model under an export credit arrangement (ECA),” he said.
The government, therefore, secured a loan of €38 million for the construction of the project, while President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on August 11, 2020, cut the sod for the construction and equipping of the two-storey 101-bed facility.
Fevers unit
Dr Okoe-Boye said the government further chose to transform the Fevers Unit because it was in a poor state. “This project was initiated by the government as part of the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was an existing building which was remodeled in line with the COVID-19 infection, prevention and control practices to serve as a treatment centre while it continued to perform its function as a Fevers unit,” he said.
The project which started on March 1, 2021, was completed on December 31, last year, at a sum of GH¢23.52 million.
“The place has been renovated and retrofitted with modern equipment. It has two intensive care units with a total capacity of 120 beds,” the Minister-designate for Health added. It also has a laboratory capable of conducting examinations into all manner of viruses and infectious diseases, including Lassa fever and Marburg.
Other facilities at the centre include counselling and consulting rooms, staff lounge, a 50-seater meeting room, X-ray and imaging rooms, patient wards and paediatric and decontamination rooms.