Traders in the Ho Central Market have contributed their widow's mite towards the “Save a Heart, Save a Life” campaign aimed at establishing a Cardiothoracic Centre at the Ho Teaching Hospital.

The Campaign is geared towards raising $3.2 million to set up a one-stop centre for the diagnosis, management and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.  

It would as well serve as a training centre for students of the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS). 

The Ho Teaching Hospital is the most equipped in the Volta Region, hence, has become a major referral health facility. 

Patients travel from the Greater Accra, Eastern and Oti regions, as well as Togo to access healthcare at the teaching hospital.   

Available data indicates that patients with Cardiovascular diseases make up a significant proportion of clients of the facility coupled with high numbers of cardiovascular death. 

This prompted the management of the Hospital to establish a cardiothoracic centre in 2019, to meet the demands of clients. 

A Cardiologist at the Ho Teaching Hospital Cardiothoracic Center, Dr. Bennet Owusu, said about 3000 patients visit the centre annually to access services, adding that the facility has been very helpful in managing heart diseases. 

“Most of the conditions that would have had complications are no more, we can stabilize hypertension, we are able to stabilize hospital admissions in those who come with heart failure and all other conditions that would have increased the mortality rate in this part of the region”, he explained. 

He, however, listed the lack of space and machinery for further investigations and surgeries as limitations at the centre, hereby, compelling patients who may need such services to travel to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra for healthcare. 

“One of the challenges is that when you refer them to Korle-Bu and other places, they wouldn’t go. Some hear Korle-Bu and they just go off, they don’t want to even go. 

"But if they feel that the region actually has one that has been established to attend to most of the cardiovascular operations here, I am sure they would patronize it and then we would be able to reduce the mortality here”, he said. 

He said a well-equipped centre “would help the doctors to function very well, hence the appeal to other organizations to support the campaign". 

Realizing the relevance of the Cardiothoracic Center project, traders in the Ho Central Market organized themselves and donated towards establishing the Centre. 

The traders donated GHC 2,000 to the campaign, hoping other benevolent individuals and organizations would pick a cue from their gesture and replicate the same. 

The Ho Central Market Queen, Rejoice Novixoxo, said they have identified the relevance of the cardiovascular diseases centre, hence, their decision to support the project “with the little we have.”

“We the market women are prone to heart disease because we continuously sit at one place, that is why we want to contribute towards the project so we can one day benefit from it”, she said. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ho Teaching Hospital, Dr. John Tampuori, appreciated the efforts of the traders and shared plans of establishing a donor fund to support patients who may not have the financial strength to pay their medical bills.

He also suggested that the traders association should donate a specific amount daily towards the donor fund to cover their members during times of need. 

“Other associations can also do the same”, he opined.