KNUST HOSPITAL STRIVES TO BE CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE (Page 29)

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu, Kumasi

Quality health care is crucial for the development of every community.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has never relented in its efforts to ensure that the university hospital is equipped to offer the best health services, not only to the university community but also the general public.
Fifty-six years ago, the KNUST Hospital was established but it was in 1972 that the female, children and male wards were added to enable the hospital admit patients.
Since then, the hospital has metamorphosed into a leading health delivery facility. It is a fact that the KNUST Hospital is the biggest in Kumasi, after the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
The giant strides the hospital is making in health care delivery cannot be overemphasised. As the hospital administrator, Mr L. Ofosu-Adjare, said in an interview, “We have a commitment to spread our services to all people in need of quality health service, and that is exactly what we will continue to do as we build on our existing facilities.”
Initially established to cater for the health needs of the university community, the 100-bed hospital now caters for some 150,000 people from the university community and surrounding areas, as well as the general public.
Among the services the hospital provides are out patient care, radiography (X-ray), laboratory services, maternal care, obstetrics and gynaecology, public health and oral health.
Others are in-patient services, institutional pharmacy, ultrasound scanning, surgery, reproductive health and ambulance services.
In 2005 for instance, out patient attendance was 89,178 but the figure shot up to 90,976 in 2006.
The hospital has a vision to “make the KNUST Health Services a centre of excellence for quality health care, teaching and research.
It seeks to provide prompt attention to patients in both medical and emergency care, increasing access to medical care for 24 hours, training of housemen and residents and to serve as a training facility for KNUST students.
Even though the hospital caters for the general public, it focuses on students of the university. It has put in place a Students’ Clinic to promote the health care delivery to students.
The clinic, which was commissioned in April 2007, has facilities such as medical records room and a dispensary.
The clinic was established to address the problem of overcrowding at the main hospital, and records at the hospital indicate that the clinic, since its establishment, has been useful to the students.
One of the significant events in the life of the hospital was the inauguration of a new pharmacy in 2007. The pharmacy was established to facilitate the delivery of efficient services to patients.
It has a drug information unit which has the human and material resources to feed people in the health profession as well as patients with all the necessary information on health issues.
According to Mr Ofosu-Adjare, the hospital, which is also a service provider under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), is actively involved in the exercise.
He gave the assurance that the hospital would continue to open its doors to the people who seek efficient medical services.