The West Africa Institute for Special Surgery (WAISS) has officially opened a facility at Pantang.
The commissioning of the facility was done with the unveiling of a logo that will inspire the delivery of excellent healthcare services to the populace.
WAISS is a state-of-the-art 46-bed special surgical hospital aimed to improve access to quality and affordable surgical care in West Africa.
The facility, which shares the same premises with FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital, has four operating rooms, private patient rooms, telemedicine, and family-sized consultation rooms.
Its areas of focus include minimally invasive urology, Andrology and men’s health, female urology, Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, Facial Paralysis and Bells Palsy, Ear, Nose and Throat, Head and Neck cancer, and Pituitary Tumor Surgery.
The rest are CSF (Brian Fluid) Leak Repair, Microvascular Reconstruction, Pediatric Craniofacial, Surgery, Facial Trauma, Sleep Surgery, Aesthetic Medicine, Interventional Spine and Pain Management among ot
hers.
Professor Kofi Boahene, Founder of WAISS and Foundation for Special Surgery, speaking during the opening of the Hospital, expressed appreciation to the doctors, project team, donors, volunteers, and sponsors for the support in bringing the vision of establishing the facility to life.
He said WAISS was partnering FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital so they could leverage each other’s expertise and not reinvent the wheel.
The Baltimore-based surgeon said the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, as well as the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital were overstretched as such, the new speciality facility would help reduce the pressure on them, saying: ‘This is my little way to give back to my motherland’.
‘I see a great partnership between WAISS and FOCOS in future. We will combine expertise to enable us to do more over a short period, but this is a process.’
Nana Professor Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, the President and Founder of FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital, commended Prof Boahen and his partners for the foresight.
He said the lack
of adequate manpower especially for specialty care, worsened by losing trained professionals to greener pastures abroad and the inadequate number of well-equipped facilities to train future specialists continued to be a challenge.
‘Above all the inadequate healthcare financing characterised by poorly funded National Health Insurance Scheme, has made it almost impossible for many households to have access to good quality health care. Instead of good healthcare becoming a right it is now a privilege most people can’t afford.
‘It is for these reasons that FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital sees the partnership with WAISS as crucial to help enhance Ghana’s healthcare system and Africa.’
Professor Boachie-Adjei called for the cooperation of all who signed up to work at the facility to be diligent, trusting and hardworking to ensure Prof Boahene’s labour was not in vain.
Dr Joseph William Akornor, a Board Member and a Urologist, said the facility would help provide surgical services that were not being done in the coun
try currently.
‘As a Urologist, I don’t think anybody is doing Robotic Surgery and Complete Urological Procedures so my goal is to bring all that technology and expertise to Ghana and West Africa,’ he added.
Dr Akornor said aside treatment, the Hospital would provide training to future urologists.
Source: Ghana News Agency
