An endowment fund to raise the needed funds to improve facilities at the Tema General Hospital (TGH) has been launched at the hospital. Initiated by (he Member of Parliament for the area, Irene Naa Torshie Addo, the fund seeks support from the public to give the facility a facelift to enable it to meet the demands of the growing population in the metropolis and its environs. An initial appeal for funds yielded GH¢ 20,000. The money raised would be used for the redesigning and redevelopment of the hospital, which is now grappling with a lot of challenges. Naa Torshie Addo launched the fund and appealed to corporate bodies to allocate portions of their earnings to the project. The hospital was established 57 years ago as the only health centre to meet the healthcare needs of workers in the port city but it has not seen any major rehabilitation since its establishment. It has over the years served the people as a hospital, a referral centre for other health posts in the vicinity and provided emergency services to victims of industrial and road traffic accidents, especially those on the motorway. Naa Torshie was not happy with the hospital’s infrastructural challenges, which she said had attracted negative reports in the medical situation that compelled her to initiate the endowment fund. She was of the view that considering the location of the hospital, it must not be left to rot and appealed to all public-spirited Ghanaians to support the project. Naa Torshie said she was optimistic that in the shortest possible time, the hospital would be rehabilitated. The Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr (Mrs) Charity Sarpong, confirmed that there had not been any major rehabilitation since the hospital was established and therefore it had infrastructural challenges and could not cope with the population growth. She noted that pressure compelled the management of the hospital to use part of its internally generated fund (IGF) to undertake some development projects, emphasising that “this cannot continue since the IGF is not for such purposes”. Dr (Mrs) Sarpong added her voice to the appeal to corporate bodies and philanthropists to help and suggested that companies adopt parts of the hospital, such as the wards and departments, for rehabilitation. She also gave the assurance that wards and departments adopted for rehabilitation would be named after the companies or individuals who adopted them. On September 25, 2011, expectant mothers who were in labour and reported at the hospital had to be turned away because of inadequate number of doctors and nurses at the maternity ward. In response to the situation, Naa Torshie, who is a champion of maternal health care and reproductive health, called on all partners to help save the hospital's maternity unit. She lamented that although over GH¢8 million was approved in the 2009 budget for the building of a new maternity block, the project had not yet taken off.