He said KATH was ready to provide the requisite technical training to professionals in the peripheral health institutions to enable them provide critical procedures needed to improve emergency care services at the lower levels.

Dr. Owusu-Danso, stated this at the maiden conference of the Emergency Medicine Society of Ghana (EMSOG), held in Kumasi.

The three-day conference which coincides with the 10th anniversary of commencement of the operations of the Accident and Emergency Centre of KATH is under the theme "A decade of emergency medicine in Ghana: The impact and the future".

The aim is to afford participants opportunity to receive training on emergency medicine, medical education partnerships, ambulance services and operations.

Dr. Owusu-Danso said the position of KATH made it imperative for it to provide the needed training and support to the various health facilities from about 12 regions in the country, which made referrals to it.

This would help to ease the pressure on KATH and reduce fatalities, especially among women in labour and children.

The CEO said the Emergency Medicine Directorate - one of the youngest Directorates in the hospital, had played a pivotal role in furthering the vision of referral facility, to become a true centre of excellence through the provision of quality clinical service, research and training of all cadre of health professionals.

KATH, he added, had been at the forefront of the development and practice of emergency medicine services and specialization in the West Africa sub-region.

It has also created clinical care areas in the Emergency Directorate based on patients' level of severity, to ensure that patients who need urgent care are not unduly delayed in receiving life-saving interventions.

Dr. Owusu-Danso commended Dr. George Oduro, the Founding Head of the hospital's Emergency Medicine Directorate, and Dr. Rockefeller Oteng of the University of Michigan, for their enormous contribution to clinical services, training and research in emergency medicine.

Dr. Maxwell Osei-Ampofo, Head of the Emergency Unit at KATH, said going forward, there was an urgent need to improve emergency care across the country.