Some staff of the clinic

The Principal of the Seventh Day Adventist College of Education (SEDACOE) at Asoko­re-Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Dr Cecilia Ofosua Odame has advised students of tertiary institutions to always carry their health insurance cards and other health related docu­ments along with them to school.

“Sickness is inevitable in a person’s life therefore, do not say that I am grown and therefore cannot be sick” she said.

According to her such documents may be a saviour in many circumstances which they might not get control over, especially, at this time of rains and economic hardships with pay­ments of colossal hospital bills.

Dr Cecilia Odame said this when the College Clinic was officially opened to the services of the students and staff last Thursday.

She explained the rationale behind the estab­lishment of the clinic and that it was one of the requirements of tertiary institutions to have a school clinic to care for the health needs of the students.

“One major reason for the construction of the clinic is that the student population of the college is growing very fast due to the Free Education Policy” she explained.

The Principal said that the facility was con­structed through the College’s Internally Gener­ated Fund (IGF) at a cost of One Million and one hundred Ghana cedis but it took several years to complete.

Dr Cecilia Odame thanked the old students, philanthro­pists, friends of the college and the SDA Church for assist­ing to complete the clinic.

The Clinic’s Co-or­dinator, MLS Wahab Addo said that the clinic was complet­ed in January 2023 which has six depart­ments, namely, OPD, Pharmacy, a Labora­tory, IPD, ANC and Counselling depart­ment.

“We have 15- bed capacity, which serves over 8,000 student community of Basic, SHS, the College and both staff and non teach­ing staff and we operate 24 hours” he said.

The Internal Auditor of the clinic, Mr Samuel Owusu also said there was the need for expansion because the recent facilities could not serve the growing population since Basic, SHS, College, Sandwich, staff and non teaching staff all pa­tronised the facility.

“We have land but we need financial support from all quarters to expand because it is our intention to extend our services to the communi­ties around us to generate a little income for the college” he said.

Mr Owusu said that most of the services pro­vided were free and appealed for support from the general public.

The Physician In-charge of the clinic, Annette Cornelius, and the Nurse in-charge of the OPD, Ansomah Darko Lovesther said most of the stu­dents” reported of malaria, ulcers, body pains and headaches, STI and STDs and appealed to them to practise personal hygiene.

They appealed for hospital equipment such as, laptops, fridges, drugs, laboratory equip­ment, and above all bungalows to enable the staff stay on campus.

 From Spectator Reporter, Koforidua