A scene during one of the training sessions of Ped Intensive Care Nursing
Global Heart Care-PASCaTS has held three capacity building programmes for nurses in pediatric intensive care nursing, and pediatric cardiology in the country from November to December 2023.
With the population of 33 million, of these, 12 million under 15 years, Ghana needs urgently more than one pediatric cardiologist to serve the pediatric population with congenital and rheumatic heart disease, hence the significance of the training program organised by Global Heart Care (GHC).
In November and December 2023, president of Global Heart Care, Prof. Charles Yankah, organised two parallel training programmes in Ghana, and The Netherlands to strengthen the health service in Ghana.
Global Heart Care (GHC) – PASCaTS concluded its activities in 2023 with ped-intensive care course in November 2023 at the KBTH with three ped-intensive care nurses; Mrs. Anja Bannicke, Sophie Wolter and Jasmin Figoy for 20 nurses at the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), hosted by Dr. Susan Zakariah, and echo clinics by Dr. Mustafa Yigitbasi; Snr. Consultant pediatric cardiologist from German Heart Centre; Charite Berlin (GHCCB) at the children’s hospital; and National Cardiothoracic Centre, Korle Bu Teaching hospital hosted by Prof. Nana-Akyaa Yao.
Also, a master class advanced cardiology course at the University Medical Centres in Amsterdan and Leiden in The Netherlands under the supervision of Dr. Kuipers and Dr. Bokenkamp, respectively, for four Ghanaian young cardiologists Dr. Seth Nani, Dr. Sheila Attuquayefio, Dr. Dzifa Ahadzi and Dr. George Peprah, practicing in hospitals in Greater Accra, Northern and Western regions of Ghana, respectively.
Dr. Regina Bokenkamp who led the GHC team performed the first interventional pediatric cardiac surgery in Ghana (West Africa) last May at the UGMC with her South African colleague, Prof. Daniel Buys.
She has organised on behalf of GHC in collaboration with her colleague, Dr. Kuipers at AUMC, the pediatric cardiology courses for the Ghanaian cardiologists.
The president of GHC, Prof. Yankah, the initiator of the projects, said he will continue to promote capacity building programmes in cadiology and cardiac surgery in Ghana to improve the pediatric care.
Professor Yankah met Prof. Tettey Ag HOD, and Dr. Entsua Mensah, Snr. Consultant pediatric cardiac surgeon at the National Cardiothoracic Centre during his mission in Accra in November/December 2023, to discuss special areas of interest for know-how transfer, and funding to develop and strengthen interventional cardiovascular surgery and simulation in cardiac surgery training.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri