Women who require specialized obstetrics and gynaecology care in the Techiman Municipality and other communities will no longer travel outside for such services.

It follows the inauguration of a new health facility whose management promise to bring paperless services to the doorstep of the people.

Valley View Hospital was established by Valley View University which already runs a campus at Bono Ahafo Region. 

Maternal mortality remains one of the major health challenges in the Bono Ahafo Region.

Techiman Municipality topped the chart with 289 women losing their lives out of 100,000 live births in the region in 2014.

Many of the victims are said to have been referred and transported in taxis without qualified medics accompanying them from smaller facilities to the Holy Family Hospital.

It is for this reason that authorities and residents hail the new Valley View Hospital as a welcome relief.

Bono Ahafo Regional Minister, Eric Opoku, says the hospital will help address the health needs of the people.

“The addition of Valley View Adventist Hospital will go a long way to absorb some of the medical challenges in the municipality and neighbouring districts.”

He commends authorities of Valley View University, Techiman Campus for adding healthcare to provision of education.

In a speech read for him by the Techiman Municipal Chief Executive, Felix Oppong Amponsah, said the hospital has come at the right time.

“I must reiterate, because of the nodal nature of the Techiman, we have most often recorded cases of some national epidemics. Examples are the cholera and meningitis outbreak in 2014 and 2015 respectively; and therefore, the university hospital has come at the right time to help in the prevention and eradication of diseases common to the municipality.”

The hospital has wards designed to meet the social status of all patients.

Patients, in particular, will be spared the hustle of chasing their folders as bio-data system requires just a patient’s a thumbprint to get all their information.

Medical Superintendent, Dr. Seth Agyemang revealed this to Nhyira FM at the commissioning.

“We are going to run a paperless system. It’s going to eliminate wasting of time. Patients come to the OPD [Out-Patient Department] and they have to wait for a couple of hours to get their folders prepared for them. Some also come with missing folders or cards.

Now what we are going to do is purely biometric. We pick your details and the next visit, you just put a thumbprint and that’s all.”

According to him, patients would be relieved of the burden of spending longer hours at the facility whilst accessing the best of care.

“Once you come here, you don’t need to carry paper. We anticipate that the maximum time to spend on OPD for a particular person is a maximum of 30 minutes.”

Meanwhile, President of the Loma Linda University in the U.S., Dr Richard Hart, says the hospital is the newest addition by the Adventist Health Services in 176 across the world, 26 of them in Africa.

According to him, Seventh-Day Adventist Church has made a significant contribution to global development in the area of education and health.

The church has 8,000 schools, including 112 universities and colleges of education training 1.7 million students.

Dr. Hart is hopeful the Techiman campus of the Valley View University which has introduced nursing training course would strive for academic excellence.

“As I listen to the dreams for this campus and for other Adventist institutions in this country, equally by the Valley View University, I recognize the commitment to drive for that kind academic excellence in healthcare excellence throughout this country. That’s difficult. That takes people. That take time; that takes resources.”