A not-for-profit organization, Volta Health Network has been launched in Keta, in the Keta Municipality of the Volta Region.

The organization mostly made of health professionals of Volta origin seek to undertake initiatives aimed at making quality healthcare accessible to the underprivileged across the region. 

The Volta Health Network held an outreach, where 50 surgeries were conducted for free in Keta to institutionalize operations of the organization.

The Volta Region is one of the underserved regions in Ghana when it comes to healthcare delivery. 

It lacks good facilities and specialists needed to provide quality healthcare to residents. 

This informed a decision by a group of health and other professionals who originate from the Volta Region to come together and form an organization to help augment healthcare delivery in the region.

This led to the formation of the Volta Health Network, to provide logistics, specialist care, build the capacity of practitioners in the region through Telemedicine among others.

The Secretary of the Volta Health Network, Leonard Yao Goba, explained that students from the health tertiary institutions in the region would be nurtured and provided the needed guidance and logistic during their training.

"We want to help students who are studying health sciences with resources so that when they complete their education they can stay in the Volta Region and work in those health facilities," he explained.

He added that companies both home and abroad, individuals who value the "benefit of human kind" supported the organization with funds, medical supplies and other logistics.

The Keta Municipal Hospital and residents in the area were the first to benefit from the various outreach programs initiated by the Volta Health Network. 

The Medical Superintendent of the Keta Municipal Hospital, Dr. Anthoinnete Ekuban, explained that the outreach was adopted to enable the underequipped facility to meet the health demands of clients. 

She detailed that 3 outreaches have been done in her facility, with Volta Health Network having a distinctive feature.

"Almost every year we have periodic specialists outreaches, and this is the second in the year, a special one of its kind where we have all the disciplines representing", she explained.

Over 600 residents in the municipality received care during the 3 days outreach. 

Those who needed medication were provided, while others went under the knife for various conditions.

The exercise was conducted by a team of about 20 volunteers including specialist doctors and nurses practicing in Ghana, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. 

The Co-President of the Volta Health Network, Dr. Francis Jojo Damalie, who led a team of specialists to conduct 50 major surgeries said the conditions treated included fibroid, ovarian masses, hernia and enlarged prostrates.

Some 69 women were also screened for cervical cancer.

The Member of Parliament for Keta, Kwame Dzudzorli Gakpey, who was instrumental in organizing the outreach said the team was overwhelmed with the kind of cases treated.

He lamented that the residents would not have been able to access healthcare at the Keta Municipal Hospital since it is not equipped with the requisite logistics and human resources to provide such services.

He detailed that the Network would be replicated in other sectors such as agriculture, education among others to harness development in the region.

The Member of Parliament for Anlo, Richard Kwame Sefe, also played a vital role in ensuring a successful outreach by the Network.

Dufia of Dzelukope, Torgbui Dzelu IV, lauded the initiative, especially the objective of the transfer of skills from the health professionals practicing in the diaspora to those stationed in the Volta Region.

Volta Health Network hopes to undertake one major outreach annually and 4 minor outreaches quarterly, hence, the appeal for support from home and abroad.