The Rotary Foundation and the Anglican Church have equipped the eye clinic of the Ho Teaching Hospital with seven requisite pieces of equipment costing over GHȼ1.5 million.

This would augment care delivery at the facility and bring to an end the use of ophthalmic trial cases ( a collection of case studies to help one get an insight on the typical history and initial examination of various eye disorders) and other basic equipment for diagnoses. 

The Ho Teaching Hospital is the biggest health facility in the Volta Region. It serves as a referral facility for district and municipal hospitals and CHPS compounds. 

Hundreds of people visit the hospital daily for various healthcare needs, including eye care services. 

However, the hospital’s eye clinic is not equipped enough to offer all services, hence, clients are often referred to other facilities. 

An Optometrist at the unit, Isaac Boamah said they had to rely on ophthalmic lens set for diagnosis due to lack of advanced logistics. 

He said they also refer cases that they are unable to diagnose to other facilities, “where clients would have to go outside for tests, bring the results to us, and this has been time consuming.”

Learning of the lack of logistics, the Rotary Club and the Anglican Church presented some equipment to the eye clinic.

They included an optical coherence tomography, autorefractor, CT-80 computerised odometer, phoropter, lensometer and 2 slit lamp biomicroscope. 

Mr. Boamah indicated that provision of the equipment would improve on healthcare  delivery and lessen the time spent at the Clinic by clients. 

“The time the clients spend at the eye clinic will be reduced now. All the optometrist and ophthalmologists, can have access to equipment if all of us are around”, he said. 

He however noted that not all the equipment were installed due to the lack of space at the clinic, hence, appealed for a bigger facility. 

In a related development, the Rotary Foundation with support from the Anglican Church procured a mobile clinic van for the Ho Teaching Hospital. 

The 2022 Ford Transit Van cost about $193,000 and comes with two collapsible Covered Tents to be used as a consulting space and a mini theatre.

Bishop of the Ho Anglican Diocese, Rt Rev Matthias Medadues-Badohu, expressed excitement that an idea he birthed in 2003 has come to reality. 

He commended the Rotary Foundation for playing a major role in achieving his objective of helping the less privileged in society, by enabling them to access basic healthcare. 

“Today is the day I will never forget because what I started as a long cherished dream and later on became a vision of the Diocese is about to he commissioned to the glory of God,” he said. 

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ho Teaching Hospital, Dr. John Tampouri, appreciated the gesture by the organisation, adding that it would help them advance a project seeking to eliminate superstition about illnesses. 

“I need to explain that in this country, not everybody believes in germ disease, we also have the spiritual ones. So we are able to identify these people, we use the opportunity to educate the population and also bring them for health attention.

” I think this van and this equipment that have been given will actually come to support and improve on this project”, he noted. 

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr. Archibald Yao Letsa, identified the initiative as a leap towards achieving universal health coverage in the region. 

The project was undertaken in partnership with the Rotary Club of Ho and the Rotary Club of Grand Manan Island in Canada. 

The President of the Rotary Club of Ho, Simon Fafali Awumey, said his outfit will play an oversight role in ensuring the Van is put to good use and ensure it is maintained well.

A tripartite management committee of representatives from the Rotary Club of Ho, Ho Teaching Hospital and the Anglican Diocese of Ho has been constituted to manage the Van.