Reproductive Health Centre now operational at Korle Bu

By Rebecca Kwei As part of efforts to improve its reproductive health services to the public, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has opened a new unit known as the Reproductive Health Centre. The centre, which is close to the Maternity Block of the hospital, offers counselling, education, information on contraception and family planning services — oral contraceptives, injectables, intra-uterine devices (IUD), implants, pap smear and adolescent health. In an interview, an Obstetrics and Gynaecology Specialist of the centre, Dr Feller Adoboe, said the facility which was opened in June 2010, also has a wing that deals with comprehensive abortion care. This involves the management of abortion-related problems, effective use of contraceptives and linking up clients to other facilities, where necessary. Furthermore, Dr Adoboe said the centre was opened to provide a conducive environment and confidentiality for clients since most people do not feel comfortable talking about their reproductive health problems. He added that contraceptive awareness in Ghana was very high but there was a very low contraceptive prevalence rate of 17 per cent of women. The reasons for the low contraceptive prevalence rate, he said, was varied and ranged from negative attitudes, religious beliefs and misconceptions to myths. "Some people think that when they use contraceptives they may not be able to give birth in future and it is our aim to correct the misconceptions about contraceptions as well as encourage people to take their reproductive health seriously", he said. Dr Adoboe also said the centre would soon offer tubal ligation and vasectomy services that it was open from Monday through Friday and encouraged women to patronise the centre’s services for screening and counselling to ensure their well-being. Giving figures on new clients who had visited the facility for 2010 and 2011, the Principal Nursing Officer in charge, Madam Christina A. Addo, said there were 869 clients for Family Planning (short and long term) in 2010 and 1532 in 2011. Three hundred and thirty-eight clients opted for permanent family planning method in 2011, compared to 271 in 2010. A total of 1,854 women received care under the Comprehensive and Abortion Care (CAC) and Post Abortion Care (PAC) services in 2010, while the figure dropped slightly to 1,852 in 2011. For adolescent health services, there were 436 clients in 2011 and 400 in 2010. In 2011, 88 women had their implants removed while 92 also had their IUD taken out. For 2010, there were 103 implants and 126 IUD removals. The centre also has a unit for screening cancers of the cervix, uterus, ovary and vulva. According to Dr Kofi Effah, the screening enables the detection of pre-cancerous cells that could be treated since the late presentation of the cancer may be fatal. He encouraged women from the age of 21 to report to the centre early to undergo screening for cervical cancer. Dr Effah also said cervical cancer had been found to be the commonest cause of death among women and that there was evidence to show that more that 99 per cent of cervical cancer was caused by the Human papillomavirus (HPV) which is sexually transmitted.