(Presby Church promotes health delivery)

Page 22, Aug 8, 2009
Article: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
THE Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) attaches much importance to the welfare of the poor and vulnerable in the society. The church is obliged to support the society by providing spiritual and physical needs.
This vision of the PCG as demonstrated within the health sector is, therefore, to serve the poor in fulfilment of the mandate by Christ to “go and heal the sick...and tell them the kingdom of God near you” (Luke 10:9).
The health service programme of the church, which was started about 124 years ago by Dr Rudolf Fich on a humble beginning, has now developed and expanded to benefit thousands of people in and outside the country.
The first ever mission hospital in the then Gold Coast, according to Reverend Dr D.N.A. Kpobi, in his book, “Triple Heritage”, was established in 1885 by the church at Kom (Aburi). Although that facility developed well for some years, it collapsed with the outbreak of the First World War and the consequent deportation of the Basel Missionaries.
The construction of a new hospital at Agogo in the Asante Akyem area by the church, which started in 1929, was completed in 1930 and inaugurated by the then British Governor of the Gold Coast, Sir Alexander Ransford Slater on March 21, 1931. It is now the oldest mission hospital in the country.
With communal labour, the chiefs and people of Dormaa started the construction of the Dormaa State Hospital in 1953 and completed it the following year.
In 1955, the management of the hospital was transferred to the Basel Mission which sent a Dutch female medical officer, Dr Emmy Ode as the first medical officer in charge of the hospital. Until the end of 1959, the hospital was financed by the Basel Mission and the Dormaa State with assistance from government.
The government handed over the Bawku and Donkorkrom Presbyterian hospitals to the church to manage in 1956 and 1985, respectively but despite the handover, the facilities were recognised as district hospitals.
The church did not stop at providing only medical care but also saw the need to offer primary healthcare services to the rural communities.
In collaboration with the government, the church started a Primary Health Care (PHC) programme, then called Rural Health Service Programme, in the Asante Akyem area in 1979.
The Agogo Presbyterian Hospital provided a District Medical Officer while the Ministry of Health supplemented with the other technical staff. The programme was later extended to Dormaa, Bolgatanga, Bawku, Sandema, Salaga, Tamale Rural, Afram Plains and Aowin-Suaman (Enchi).
The church was then training nurses at the Agogo Hospital before the Second World War (1939-1945) but the programme was temporarily suspended during the war. By 1986, however, 184 nurses had been trained.
In 2008 alone, the church’s health institutions spent GH¢24,848.95 to provide free medical care for 1,116 poor patients. The institutions also spent GH¢12,672.84 on the feeding of those poor patients aside paying their transport expenses and buying clothing for some of them.
Despite these impressive achievements, the church does not currently have any health facility in eight of its 15 presbyteries. The situation, therefore, calls for vigorous efforts by the church to mobilise resources for the establishment of health facilities in those presbyteries and the expansion of the existing facilities within the next five years.
That has become necessary because due to donor fatigue, the church’s overseas partners are gradually reducing their funding for the church’s health programmes.
It is in this vein that the church has instituted a health week celebration in August every year, during which funds are raised to support its health activities. This year, the church has targeted to raise GH¢100,000 towards the health programme.
Launching this year’s health week, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the church, Right Reverend Dr Yaw Frimpong-Manso said, “our religious observance, our church attendance and our Presbyterian lifestyles will be meaningless unless they are harnessed for socio-economic development and provision of the physical needs of our people”.
He observed that the provision of health services as well as other social services is the church’s mandate, which it must not run away from.
The Heath Coordinator of the church, Mr Samuel Sarpong Appiah stated that the church’s health facilities did not discriminate against the provision of services to its clients.
He added that the church did not collect money from the health facilities but instead, it looked elsewhere for funds to support its running.
Mr Appiah announced that within the past two years, the church had acquired seven four-wheel Toyota and three Mitsubishi vehicles for some of its health institutions.
He said through the initiative of the moderator, members of the church resident in Australia had provided a grant of $10,000 to support the construction of a health centre for the Ehiamatuo community in the Samreboi area of the Western Region.
Mr Appiah, therefore, pleaded with the various congregations of the church to play their parts to ensure that the set target of GH¢100,000 for the year was realised to enable it embark on more health programmes for the benefit of the people in the communities where it operates.

Portrait of Rt Rev. the Moderator of the General Assembly of the PCG)