The Bryan Lowe Orthopedic Hospital (BLOH), formerly known as the Kunta Kinte Orthopedic Hospital (KKOH) at Mampong Akuapem in the Eastern Region has now been privatized following huge debts accumulated over the years.
Information gathered by the DAILY HERITAGE indicates that the hospital that was built for charity purposes and funds raised from all over the world to support its operational activities has been forced to operate as a private facility because of huge debts.
A source at the hospital revealed that the facility was an initiative of the International SOS Society (ISOSS), a Non-Governmental-Organization and built through funds raised by donations made to the ISSOS mainly from the United States of America.
Narrating how the hospital got to this stage, the source said many fund raising dinner programmes were organized internationally after pictures of disabled Ghanaians were taken as pictorial evidence to get more donors and sponsors to help build the facility.
After raising the funds, it was agreed that 20% of profits to be made from the facility would be transferred to International SOS and till 2013; all profits from the hospital were non-taxable.
It said with all this support, the hospital deteriorated after the death of Bryan Oswald Lowe in 2009.
The Medical Director at the facility, Dr. Yaw Osafo confirmed to the paper that the huge debts of the hospital and other management issues compelled them to privatize the hospital and keep it running.
Dr. Osafo explained that debt owed Electricity Company of Ghana alone was about GH¢30,000.00 as at 2014, aside other operational costs and added that most of the workers were also dismissed because they did not have the requisite qualification to run the facility.
Speaking in an interview with the paper, Mercy Atuah Sakyi, a close ally of Bryan Oswald Lowe and the sister, Dorothy Wilbekin-Lowe, said the hospital was no longer used for its original purpose after the death of Bryan Oswald Lowe.
Information from the hospital’s website indicates that the facility’s primary focus is to provide professional medical care for the physically disabled and polio victims and their rehabilitation through physical therapy and psychological and emotional support.
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