For many families in the Western Region, a medical emergency brings more than fear of illness.

It brings anxiety about distance, delays, and whether specialized care will arrive in time.

For years, critically ill patients at Effiankwanta Hospital have had to be referred to facilities far away because the hospital lacks an Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a gap residents say has cost precious lives.

That reality may soon change following a major contribution towards the establishment of the region’s first ICU facility at the Effiankwanta Hospital.

Chief Executive Officer of Focus1 Group, Ing. Kwame Adu-Mante, has donated GH¢100,000 to support the ICU project, describing it as an investment in life, dignity, and the future of healthcare in the Western Region.

Speaking at journalists, he explained that GH¢66,199 of the amount will be used to furnish the ICU, while the remaining GH¢34,000 will cover essential auxiliary expenses needed to make the unit operational.

“This ICU is not just about equipment,” Ingr. Adu-Mante said. “It is about giving people a fighting chance when life is hanging in the balance. No family should lose a loved one simply because critical care is too far away.”

Health professionals at the event organized to receive the donation underscored the importance of an ICU, noting that it is crucial for managing severe trauma, post-surgical complications, strokes, respiratory failure, and life-threatening infections.

Without such a facility, patients often endure risky transfers at their most vulnerable moments. A senior nurse at Sekondi Hospital described the current situation as emotionally draining and called on others to emulate the example set by businessman Kwame Adu-Mante

“There are times when you know a patient could survive if intensive care were available,” she said. “This project gives us hope that we can finally save more lives.”

For Ing. Adu-Mante, the initiative reflects a long-standing commitment to healthcare development in the region. In 2018, while serving on the Health Committee of the Effia-Kwesimintsim Municipal Assembly, he led efforts to construct a health post in Takoradi to bring basic healthcare services to traders at the Takoradi market circle.

“This region raised me,” he said. “Supporting healthcare here is not charity; it is responsibility.”

Residents who spoke to JoyNews welcomed the donation and described it as a lifeline for the community. Ama Mensah, a trader in Sekondi, said too many families have suffered avoidable losses.

“We have lost people because they had to be sent to Cape Coast or Accra,” she said. “An ICU here will save many families from pain.”

Another resident, Kwesi Appiah, a taxi driver, believes the donation should inspire others with ties to the region to act.

“This should challenge all well-meaning people from the Western Region,” he said. “Healthcare is about life, not politics.”

Organisers of the ICU project say the donation has reignited momentum and are calling on corporate institutions, professionals, traditional authorities, and indigenes of the Western Region, both home and abroad, to contribute funds, equipment, or expertise to help complete the facility.

According to them, the ICU will stand as a shared achievement and a symbol of collective responsibility.

“When the doors finally open,” Ing. Adu-Mante said, “they will open because people chose to come together for the sake of life.”

For families in Sekondi and beyond, that choice could mean the difference between fear and hope, and loss and survival.