Theatre coming up for Children’s Hospital By Jennifer Herselm Walling area of the Princess Marie Louise Children’s esGiarscarr casey eoal ons story well. Hundreds of children line the benches and walls of the ground floor of this 74 bed hospital seeking medical attention from a facility often unable to cover their needs because of a lack of space or doctors. The doctors here hope the situation will improve with the comple tion next year, ofa new theatre and surgical building that is currently under construction on the hospital grounds, The new building wil house 10 new surgeons, two theatre rooms and an intensive care seo tion, which will enable the hospital to perfor surgery on patients, tnelead of refering He-BuTeaching Hospital “We want to make this & hospital for children with any case that comes in, either surgical or medical,” said Reverend Fathice Andrew Campbell, the chairman of the hospital's board of directors. ‘Aweonstruction ofthe new building's foundation has already be- gun, Father Campbell is collecting the total of GH¢360,000 that oectrecuires from Barclays Bank, fiends and benetsetors oft Hospital and from the proceeds ofan cvlierbeneft concer. He said he isstll Jonors to help pay forthe surgieal unit's equip- ment, Construction started a the end of April, Since the PM.L. Children’s Hospital was named No. | hospital in Greater Acsraby the Ghana medical association lag year, but as Acera's only children's hospital, its needs are growing Dr Ere Sifah, acting medical superintendent, sida surgical facility is severely needed so that children who require surgery donot need to go through a dangerous ransferto get to another hospital The Chile's Hospital has trouble carrying patients berween hospitals with only table: bas OF ehioh ta cavecdiy tne Coneued ior: leaky roof, “Almost everyday, we refer a case to Korle-Bu hospital,” Dr. Sifah said, “Sometimes we have only one ambulance, and the traffic is a problem, oo. If we have our own surgical nit it will help us out” In a typical day, nurses and doctors will see between 200 and 300 young patients. Children in the emergency room sleep two toa bed in an Area with only 10 beds Phidelia Gtigu, a nursing officer in the emergency room said, “We don’ thave enough beds, we're supposed to only have one on a bed so we try to transfer them to wards quickly.” When a child needs to be transferred to Korle- Bu for surgery the hospital staff improvise in order to come up with vehicles, Their only ambulance was donated 11 years ago by Italian children who gave up enjoyment of Christmas presents 10 raise money for the Children’s Hos- pital ‘Once, we haul an emergency and-we put an oxygen tank in a four Wheel drive car witha child fo get them to the hospital,” De, Sifah said, illustrating the hospitals situation. “The nurses remarked that often they see patients arive before 6 am, and stay all day trying to be helped. In the rainy season, especially between May and July, cases inerease because of water-bom illnesses and mosquitoes that carry malaria, Dr. Sifah urged people to use their mosquito-nets to protect against malaria, The PM.L. Children’s Hospital was builtin 1925 and celebrated its 80 Anniversary three years ago. At about that time, the board of direc- tors decided to start fundraising forthe new building, in order perform surgeries on site for children. The hospital primarily relies on money ‘donations for its equipment and facilites and in this case, they will nced to collect pledged money in order to complete the facility “We are doing well,” Father Campbell said: “If those who have pledged money come through, we will be alright,” he'said referring to the ‘cio Vault -