A project to turn the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Hospital in Kumasi into a top Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has been launched.
The project, which is estimated at $600,000, is an initiative of the Rotary Club of Kumasi East and is being done with support from the management of the KNUST Hospital.
It is expected to decongest the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s (KATH) ICU, and to be completed in June 2022.
Speaking at a fundraising and presidential ball in Kumasi on Saturday, President of the club, Nana Kofi Ayesu-Boahene, said the centre upon completion would be the second of its kind in the region after KATH.
He said apart from the ICU which is critical in delivering top-class health services to the people, the club would be undertaking a series of life-relieving projects in the next few months across the country.
He mentioned some of the projects as the establishment of an ICT centre at Atasemanso, equipping dormitories of the Ashanti School for the Deaf, cervical cancer screening, hepatitis B screening, and installation of X-ray equipment at Holy Family Hospital at Nkawkaw among others.
He said the club remains resolute in solving problems in some deprived communities in the region and their focus is on health, education, sanitation, and provision of potable drinking water.
The head of Clinical Care, KNUST Hospital, Dr. Ababio Hanson, said following the number of critical cases recorded at the hospital, the siting of an ICU centre was essential in providing a response to such crises.
He said the hospital is currently serving a huge population at both the university and adjoining communities, adding that “An ICU setting for the hospital is so essential.”
He said they could not always rely on KATH for referrals since the latter has only six ICU beds.
Dr. Hanson called on institutions and philanthropists to also donate towards the establishment of the centre.