THIS IS DISGUSTING (MAY 8, 2009)

THE nation’s major health service provider, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, is in the news again for the wrong reasons.
After the recent hullabaloo over the malfunctioning elevator at the Maternity Block which forced the Health Minister, Dr George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, to issue an ultimatum to ensure its repair, the nation is being greeted with the sad news that surgery at the National Cardiothoracic Centre has been suspended following the theft of an 80-metre gas conveyor at the centre.
According to the Director of the centre, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, the centre would need GH¢20,000 to replace the gas conveyor whose theft took place about two weeks ago.
Established in 1992, the Cardio Centre has greatly enhanced medical services in the country and contributed in no small way to the hailing of Korle-Bu as a neuroscience centre of excellence in West Africa.
Fact is that before its establishment, Ghana could annually send only six patients abroad for treatment at a cost of $120,000 each, but now it takes between $8,000 and $10,000 to treat the same illness in the country, with relatives of patients required to pay only half of the cost.
Currently, the centre handles about 500 cardio cases annually and it had been the hope and prayer of every well-meaning person that more support will be given the centre to enable it to improve service delivery to the people.
The DAILY GRAPHIC is, therefore, saddened that a few saboteurs have managed to stall operations at the centre by the theft of the copper pipe through which compressor air is supplied to the equipment.
What is even more worrying is the fact that the authorities at Korle-Bu created conducive conditions for the crime to be easily committed. The question is: Why should an area where such an important cable has been laid be left without adequate security lights all these years?
Apart from taking immediate steps to find money to replace the copper pipes and bring the all-important centre back to life, the DAILY GRAPHIC also suggests that security lights must be erected and the area put under 24-hour surveillance to avert a recurrence of such a shameful act.
The greatest tribute we can pay to the men and women through whose vision, determination and effort the foundation for Korle-Bu was laid is to help to make the hospital the best medical institution in Africa and one of the best in the world.
The theft of the copper wire has put the health of heart patients at risk and this unfortunate situation must be addressed immediately to retain public trust in the centre.
Korle-Bu has built a reputation as a centre of excellence and the finest source for the restoration of good health to our people. No matter the challenges, every Ghanaian is proud of this record.
In view of this, all of us owe it a duty to protect this national facility. It is crucial.