Editorial: Yes, Western Region Needs ICU!

The Western Regional Minister, Joseph Nelson has, according to our recent report, launched an initiative to build a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for Takoradi Hospital, formerly known as European Hospital.

According to the minister, ICU plays important role in our health delivery system and regretted that Western Region as a whole does not have such important facility. This, according to him, is the reason why he has decided to launch the initiative to build one at the Takoradi Government Hospital.

The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, George Peprah,acknowledged that his outfit does not have such important facility and, therefore, welcomed the initiative. He also regretted that because they did not have ICU facilities, most of the cases are referred to Cape Coast, which is battling with its own problems.

As the two Speakers noted, ICU facilities play important role in the modern day health delivery system. The Chronicle, therefore, fully supports the laudable initiative of the Regional Minister, who, because of his outside training, really understands the enormity of the problem.

Western Region, as readers will admit, contributes substantially to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It, therefore, worries us that it does not have a single state of the art ICU. This is the reason why the process being initiated by the regional minister should collectively be supported by all stakeholders -traditional leaders, churches, clergy, corporate Ghana, philanthropists and every indigene of the region.

The Chronicle equally appeals to all the mining companies in the region to consider construction of the ICU as part of their corporate social responsibility. We admit that the mining companies apart from the taxes they pay to the government have also been overburdened with financial problems, especially those emanating from the host communities.

This notwithstanding, we still think they must come in and help because lack of quality health facilities in the region can also affect their work output. But whilst The Chronicle, on behalf of the minister, appeals to all these corporate bodies to come in and help, the contribution of the central government is also very crucial and cannot, therefore, be ignored.

Since all our taxes are collected by the government, it behoves on the latter to fully support the private initiative being made to get this ICU facility. Western Region with all her natural resources that have helped to keep the national economy on its feet should not be relying on Central Region for ICU services.

With all the major senior high schools in addition to the tertiary institutions, Cape Coast is already overburdened. One ICU cannot, therefore, take care of them and, adding Western Region will certainly exacerbate the situation. The government should also take note of the fact that because of its close proximity to Ivory Coast, the Western region is always bustling with human and business activities.

These activities come with its associated problems, especially road crashes, and without ICU, dealing with these health emergencies becomes a big problem to authorities. The government itself is aware of these realities and that is why she must not hesitate in joining hands with the private initiative to construct the ICU.

Going forward, we suggest that all health facilities that are going to be constructed in future should have ICU. Takoradi or European Hospital, as the name connotes, was constructed by our colonial masters to take care of their health problems. The facility has obviously outlived its usefulness and must be reconstructed with modern ICU.

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