Members of FBC donating blood
The maternity unit of the Tema Polyclinic has operated for about a decade without a blood bank, Dr Sally Quartey, Medical Superintendent of the facility has disclosed.
She said pregnant women who suffered hemorrhage during parturition had to be referred to the Tema General Hospital, which was the nearest referral centre, where obtaining blood was sometimes quite challenging.
Dr Quartey disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times in an interview on Saturday when the Tema First Baptist Church (FBC), as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, donated a blood bank fridge and a cadiotocographic machine (an ultrasound scan that monitors foetal development) to the facility.
She maintained that many complications and maternal deaths could be saved by building up more heamoglobin antenatal as well as adequate and timely supply and transfusion of blood.
Dr Quartey stressed that blood security was crucial for several emergency cases, hence the need for all eligible donors to give blood voluntarily to replenish the low supply of blood in the medical facility.
Senior Pastor of FBC, Reverend David Kwame, told the Ghanaian Times that the gesture, including renovation of the maternity block, came to fruition after a consultation with the Dr Quartey about the urgent and pressing needs of the polyclinic.
“Estimated at about GH¢30,000.00, the entire gesture formed part of the corporate social responsibility of the church, which coincided with the celebration of our year-long 50th anniversary, set to climax in December,” he said.
Rev. Kwame said the church recognised the importance of health, wholeness, spiritual and physical healing of the community with emphasis on health, adding that “we also acknowledge the integration of spiritual, physical, intellectual, emotional and social lives of every individual, hence the gesture.”
The presentation of the items was preceded by a float on some principal streets of Tema.
FROM KEN AFEDZI, TEMA
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