A new diagnostic centre to provide first-class laboratory services to patients and clients of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), was inaugurated in Accra yesterday.
The Korle-Bu Mindray Lynch (KML) Centre, equipped with ultra-modern equipment, is expected to improve turn-around time in accessing laboratory services for clinical decisions and improve healthcare delivery at the hospital.
The Chief Executive Officer, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, speaking at the inauguration of the facility said Korle-Bu was often unable to meet the huge demand for essential laboratory services due to the high number of patients that access care there.
“We see between 1,500 and 2,500 patients daily and we have a bed capacity of around 2000. In 2021, 1,514,533 laboratory tests were done across all satellite units of the hospital and it is sometimes a bit of a strain on our central laboratory if all these people need services.
Some have to wait for days to have these results ready and it adds to the congestion at the hospital so this centre is timely to significantly meet the needs of our patients and clients,” he noted.
According to Dr Ampomah, the hospitals decision to leverage public-private partnership (PPP) to expand its laboratory services was in line with the management’s vision of re-positioning KBTH as a centre of medical excellence within the global landscape.
“The new array of tests that will be done here would stop the issue of patients going out of the hospital to run tests with others going abroad to access laboratory services and falling prey to substandard outcomes.”
The KML Centre, he mentioned had “the most efficient equipment such as the Serum Automated Modular System 9000 and New Generation Cellular Analysis Line 8000 to offer clinical chemistry, immunology and haematology which are some of the highly requested tests at Korle-Bu.”
“This facility will greatly enhance the provision of prompt, efficient and reliable services as backup to what our central laboratory is doing,” he added.
Mr Maurice Nyamekye, Executive Director of Lynch Medical Services and representative of Mindray in Ghana, expressed happiness that the facility was operational to serve clients requiring peculiar laboratory examinations at KBTH.
According to him, the second phase of the Centre would be completed within a year to expand the variety of services currently on offer.
“Our goal is to become a leading medical laboratory in the world and we intend venturing into more of such PPPs to make healthcare much accessible, affordable and of quality standards,” he said.
For his part, the Board Chairman of KBTH, Dr David Nkansa-Dwamena said the inauguration of the KML Centre was an example of “what can be achieved through a well-structured and regulated PPP to the benefit of all.”
He urged management to ensure appropriate maintenance arrangements were followed through to warrant the longevity of the facility.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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