A total of 34,029,072.00 Ghana cedis is needed to refurbish the Emergency Ward of the Department of Child Health of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, to benefit children in Ghana and those from other West African countries.

The ward is a referral centre for children suffering from various types of illness and severe infections, including complicated malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia, meningitis, tuberculosis, severe anaemia, childhood cancers and heart abnormalities and premature babies.

Professor Bamenla Goka, Head of the Department, disclosed these to journalists in Accra on Tuesday when the FirstBanC, a financial institution, presented a cheque of 5,000 Ghana cedis towards the refurbishment of the facility.

The bank had also adopted a ward at the Department for rehabilitation and to supply it with standard medical equipment. Prof. Goka said the expansion of the Emergency Ward and the Intensive Care ward would be in three phases and that about 9,000,000 Ghana cedis would be needed for the first phase of work.

She said the Emergency Ward, which was built to take care of a maximum number of 15 children but currently takes 40 children, had remained the same since the Department was built in the early 1960s.

"The inadequacy of space and beds means that sick children are forced to share beds with each other, sometimes three to a bed, thus drastically increasing the chance of cross infection. During peak admission periods, some children have to sit on their parents' laps in a chair for hours while they receive life-saving care", she said.

Prof. Goka said that equipment and facilities at the ward were stretched beyond limit resulting in their frequent breakdown.

Mr Frank Gamadey, Financial Controller and Head of Pension at the FirstBanC, who made the presentation, said the gesture was to complement government's efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal Four on 93Reducing Child Mortality".

He said child healthcare, especially the fight against child cancer, was the main social responsibility of the company.

"We believe in wealth creation, and one of the best ways to ensure a progressive nation is to invest in children so that they can grow to become healthy and responsible adults."

Madam Jane Boatey, mother of a three-month-old baby, told the Ghana News Agency that due to the lack of beds, she had been carrying her baby in her arms while receiving drip infusion.

"I have been standing since yesterday and I will plead with the government and other corporate bodies to come to the aid of the hospital for the sake of these little children".