Superior Medical Centre to mark 20 years -Of dedicated quality health care

02-03-2011



FOR the past 20 years, the Superior Medical Centre (SMC), a private non-profit, non-missionary facility has served the people of Ghana with dedication and passion. To celebrate its 20 years of existence, the staff of the centre led by Dr Edward Nasigrie Mahama, has laid down elaborate plans.
In an interview with Dr Mahama in his consulting room at Dome, he said the week-long programme was scheduled to take place in March 2011.
In the course of the interview, Dr Mahama, who is a leading politician and had been the flag bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), indicated that “today I am not talking politics but health”.
He said events lined up for the occasion included clean up campaigns, healthy life awareness creation, encounter with media practitioners, radio and television interviews, free screening and consulting doctors, anniversary lectures, dinner and awards night and a non-denominational thanksgiving service, among other activities.
The Superior Medical Centre (SMC) which was established in March 1990, is located in Paradise Estates, Oko-Dome, a suburb of Accra. It is owned and operated by the Superior Medical Foundation, a private non-profit organisation established in March 1990 as the counterpart of the Ghana Medical Foundation based in Chicago, in the United States of America (USA).
With Dr Mahama as the leader, the SMC has a group of duly qualified and registered physicians and nurses who care for clients and patients with zeal and passion.
That is the reason why in 2010, the centre was given an award for rendering exceptional service to subscribers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
A citation titled “Excellence in Service Provision” and signed by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Sylvester Mensah, indicated that “For exemplary customer service provided to subscribers of the NHIS in the Greater Accra Region of the Republic of Ghana in the year 2010, for accuracy and integrity in the submission of claims for services rendered to subscribers of the scheme and for generally contributing to the development of the scheme, this citation is conferred on Superior Medical Centre, Dome, Accra”.
For years, the centre has provided community based health delivery in the area of: Primary health care service which include immunisations, obstetrical services at the specialist level, gynaecological services at the specialist level, laboratory services and 24-hour emergency services.
The rest are infertility/fertility control and family planning services including artificial insemination, paediatric services at the specialists level, pathology services including pap smears and histology (tissue diagnosis) and consulting surgical services.
Dr Mahama said the centre had over the years provided quality services to especially people in the surrounding areas and also beyond.
“People travel from the sub-region and even beyond to seek medical attention,” he stated.
He explained that there were times that the centre, with support from other stakeholders in the health sector provided free services to local people which were geared towards health promotion.
To acquire the needed expertise to do what he loves to do best, Dr Mahama studied for his medical degree at the University of Ghana Medical School, Korle-Bu. After a year of housemanship, he returned to his home town, Nalerigu in the Northern Region of Ghana where he served as a General Practitioner with the Baptist Mission Medical Centre. He then proceeded to the United States of America (USA) where he did Residency in Obstetrics and Gynaecology under the late Ernest Nora, Chief of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Columbus Medical and Professor John Jack Sciarra of North-western University, Chicago.
He became the Chief Resident at the Columbus-Cuneo-Cabrini Medical from July 1979 to June 1980. He was appointed Clinical Instructor (Lecturer) at North-western University, Chicago after his Residency.
He returned to Ghana in 1990 to start the Superior Medical Centre Project and as a Lecturer with the University of Ghana Medical School. His return was encouraged by Prof. J.J. Sciarrha, who in collaboration with the late Prof. Tom Elkins, Prof. Tim Johnson and others from the UK, strengthened and elevated the Obstetric-Gynaecology Training Programme at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to international status and recognition.
This was founded by the Carnegie Foundation. Under this funding, Dr Mahama taught Obstetric-Gynaecology Residents how to repair Vesico-Vaginal Fistulae (women who leak urine uncontrollably on account of neglected labour) in out-lying stations like the Baptist Medical Centre at Nalerigu and Nkawkaw.
During the interview, Dr Mahama said his main focus has been to use Superior Medical Centre as a starting point for reversing medical brain drain from Ghana.
As a reminder, the slogan of the Superior Medical Centre Project has remained "Stop the brain drain; join the brain gain", “Return and serve mother Ghana”.
To achieve the objective, Dr Mahama and his colleagues at the SMC, have for the past 20 years been collaborating with a number of medical practitioners who would have hitherto stayed abroad, to offer quality health care services to Ghanaians.
Cuurently, the centre’s major challenge is how to acquire land to expand the facility for many more Ghanaians to benefit from the quality services it has been offering over the years.