Mr Sulemanu Koney, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, who presented the medical equipment to the Management of the Hospital at Bimbilla in the Nanumba North Municipality on Wednesday, said it was to ease the burden of the facility in its quest to provide quality health care for the people.

The Bimbilla Government Hospital, a 120-bed facility, which serves a large number of the citizenry along the Eastern Corridor of the country, faces a number of challenges including; erratic water supply, congestion in the ward, lack of a functional X-Ray machine, lack of ambulance, inadequate staff and accommodation, and incomplete fence wall.  

Despite operating under trying conditions, the hospital was adjudged last month as the best performing hospital in the Northern Region for 2018 based on a number of indicators including; improvement in neonatal and infant mortality, and maternal health care.

It recorded an increase in delivery from 1,788 in 2017 to 2,212 last year, but maternal deaths reduced from five to one during the period, which translated to a significant reduction in maternal mortality rate of 279 per 100,000 live births in 2017 to 47 per 100,000 live births in 2018.

Mr Koney said at the Ghana Chamber of Mines, "Our primary focus is to put people first by improving their well-being, which is underscored by the Sustainable Development Goals (3) on ensuring good health and well-being of the populace."

Dr Osman Abdulai, Medical Superintendent of Bimbilla Government Hospital, who received the equipment, said the provision of the medical equipment, especially the incubator, would help improve the management of pre-term babies at the facility.

Dr Abdulai said "Currently, the hospital has to refer most of these babies to either Yendi Municipal Hospital or Tamale Teaching Hospital for management for lack of this equipment."

He expressed gratitude to the Ghana Chamber of Mines for the support assuring that the equipment would be used for the intended purpose to improve the health status of the citizenry.

Mr Abdulai Yaqoub, Municipal Chief Executive of Nanumba North assured that work would soon start to sink two boreholes at the hospital to ensure regular supply of water to it to undertake its operations.

Mr Yaqoub said the Member of Parliament for the Bimbilla Constituency had procured an ambulance, which would be delivered to the hospital next week to take care of emergency operations.

Nyelinbolgu Naa Yakubu Andani, Regent of Bimbilla, in a statement, during a courtesy call on him at his palace thanked the Chamber for the gesture saying the hospital needed more support to ensure quality health care for clients.