BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HO DIOCESAN HEALTH SERVICE

Background

The Catholic Church’s involvement in health can be traced to Jesus Christ the founder who healed the sick as part of his ministry to indicate that the Kingdom of God is among us. In response to his mandate in the Great Commission, he charged his disciples to go and heal the sick. This is primarily why the church is into health to continue the healing ministry of Christ.

Health services came to be part and parcel of the Church through the early Missionaries who saw the healing as part of the evangelization. In those times, there were no organized health institutions. As the Missionaries operated from Mission houses they offered first aid to the indigenous people as well. With time, this service developed and organized health institutions began to spring up.

In the erstwhile Keta Diocese which later became Keta-Ho Diocese and covered the whole of Volta Region, the first facility was established at Weme-Abor by the Sacred Heart Sisters from France in December, 1957. This was followed by Catholic Hospital, Anfoega in 1959. Margret Marquart Catholic Hospital, Kpando on 2^nd February, 1960, St Anthony’s Hospital, Dzodze on 10^th February, 1960, St Mary Theresa Hospital, Dodi Papase, 7^th June 1963, St Joseph Hospital, Nkwanta, 1971, St George’s Clinic, Liati in 1983, St Luke Clinic, Chinderi 1988 and Comboni Hospital now Fr. Richard Novati Hospital, Sogakofe in 1990.

At the time of dividing the Keta-Ho Diocese into three in 1994, each Diocese had three facilities. Currently, the Ho Diocese has added two facilities therefore has five (5) facilities. Thus; Catholic Hospital, Anfoega, Margret Marquart Catholic Hospital, Kpando, St. George’s Clinic, Liati Mater Ecclesiae Hospital, Sokode-Gbogame and St. Francis Clinic, Saviefe Agorkpo.

Health Administration

The Church always had a functional system of administering the health facilities, this was not very elaborate at the beginning because the Diocesan Health Administrators were not appointed full time but managed health institutions alongside other assignments and they were mostly Diocesan Bursars who doubled as the Health Administrators. Health Administration then was not as complex and elaborates as it is today.

In September, 1980, Rev. Fr. Nicholas Steemers, SMA was appointed a full time Diocesan Health Administrator. He worked hard to set up and organize the Administration in a professional way. Unfortunately, he died in February, 1981.

Since he had his office at St. Cecilia Parish, Ho Dome, Rev. Fr. Andrian Jos Pijpers who was then the Parish Priest took over the Diocesan Health Administration as an additional responsibility. When there was a clear indication that the Society of African Missionaries (SMA) will be re-assigned Rev. Fr. Cletus Frank Egbi was appointed to under study Rev. Fr. Andrian Jos Pijpers and he finally took over on 1^st May, 1987 as the first Ghanaian Priest Diocesan Health Administrator. Keta-Ho Dioceses was divided creating Ho Diocese therefore the Ho Diocesan Health Service emerged. Mrs. Juliana Azumah-Mensah, the former Member of Parliament of Agotime-Ziope Constituency and Mr. Simeon Kwaku Amuzu, the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bator Catholic Hospital were once Diocesan Health Administrators.

Rev. Msgr. Cletus Frank Egbi was reappointed as the Diocesan Health Director after the resignation of Mr. Simeon Kwaku Amuzu from the position of Diocesan Director. He held this position until the retirement of the Most Rev. Francis A. K Lodonu, the Bishop Emeritus of Ho and a new Bishop, Most Rev. Emmanuel Kofi Fianu, SVD was installed as the Bishop of Ho.

Mr. Emmanuel Hanson Torde, the Hospital Administrator of Margret Marquart Catholic Hospital, Kpando was appointed as the acting Diocesan Director in May, 2016. Mr. Emmanuel Hanson Torde has been managing the Margret Marquart Catholic Hospital, Kpando and entire Diocesan Health Service as an additional responsibility till date.

Locations of Our Facilities

Currently the Diocesan Health Service comprises of 5 facilities and strategically located in five (5) out of the eight (8) political districts covered by the Diocese.

The Catholic Diocese of Ho each year organizes capacity-building sessions for all Parish Pastoral Council members. The aim of this is to equip them with the necessary skills they needed to work more effectively for the growth of the church and in particular, the Catholic Diocese of Ho. This training session was scheduled to be done on a deanery basis. On 4th June 2021, the first session in the year was held at St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Ho-Kpevele for all the Ho deanery PPC members. Today the 18th of June, Hohoe deanery will also part take in the same workshop and that of the Kpando Deanery will come off later on Wednesday 30th June, 2021 at the Immaculate Conception Parish, Kpando. All these workshops are being facilitated by Bismark Tay Leadership Solution. 

1. There will be a workshop on diocesan strategic plan tomorrow, 24th October, 2018 at Bishop Konings Guest House. The time is 9:30am. 

2. The installation of the Cathedral Administrator will come off on Sunday, 4th November, 2018 at the Cathedral at exactly 7:00am

3. There will be a Memorial Mass for all deceased Priests and Religious on Tuesday, 6th November, 2018 at 10am prompt.