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Access to safe, affordable surgical and anaesthesia care for children at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), in Kumasi was meagre due to the unavailability of a paediatric theatre.

This is because the hospital had only a combine theatre for all demographics denying children the needed medical care.

As a remedy to this challenge, the Kids Operation Room (KidsOR), a global children’s health charity organization focused on safe child surgery has provided the hospital with two paediatric modernized theatres.

The ribbon cutting ceremony which took place on Tuesday, October 25, 2022, has the theatres furnished with oxygen cylinders, monitors, anaesthesia machines, laboratory tables and other medical equipment worth thousands of Ghana Cedis.

According to the organization, the lack of access to quality surgical services and care remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity among children.

The former head of the Paediatric Surgery Unit at Korle-bu Teaching Hospital and the country contact person of KidsOR, Dr. William Appeadu-Mensah, disclosed that surgical conditions of children are often downplayed due to insufficient space in health facilities.

“All over the country and mostly in Africa theatres are built as one and generally for adults with no special preparation for children who may be operated. So there is usually insufficient theatre space. You may find three or four rooms being shared by a hospital with adults with all forms of emergencies (accidents, child delivery complications etc) competing with children that need surgery. In most cases the conditions of children are downplayed with the conditions of the adults facilitated,” he lamented.

“So KidsOR has decided to build theatres purposely for children so that when a child comes with a surgical condition he does not have to compete with anybody. Immediately his condition comes, the paediatric surgeon can take him to the theatre and have specialists trained to manage children conditions to manage them. We ensured that the equipment that are there are made for the best of the child. We don’t have to wait for emergencies to get worse now because there is no longer competition”, he was optimistic.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Dr. Oheneba Owusu Danso bemoaned maternity and child care challenges at the hospital.

“The relationship and the project that has been executed by KidsOR has come a long way. The hospital has had various challenges especially with maternal and child care. In the past the children were queuing with the adults for surgical space in the main theatre area and also the delivery of theatre services was also constrained because the managed to do averagely about 40 cases monthly even with the large number of paediatric surgeons we have here. And also they had a long list of children who needed surgery sometimes going into about 6 to 7 months,” he disclosed.

He, however, noted that the initiative by KidsOR has improved paediatric health care delivery at the facility.

“With this their list is coming down. Now they are doing averagely 50 cases monthly and they are certainly aiming at scaling up this figure with the two new theatres. Hopefully, I think that it will leverage and cut down on the waiting time for children who need surgical services,” he stated.

The African Communication Officer of KidsOR, Muthoni Wahome, has urged for the prioritization of children’s health care.

“This is the 50th installation by KidsOR and it is in Ghana.The need is there and the health of children should be prioritized. Children don’t need to be loosing their lives on something that can be prevented,” she stressed.