Baptist Medical Center records 40 new cases of malnutrition The Baptist Medical Center at Nalerigu in the East Mamprusi Municipality is recording at least forty new cases of malnutrition among children monthly. The condition of some of the children is so bad that, they stay on admission for several months to ensure full recovery. The Nutrition officer for the Baptist Medical Center, Amos Abubakari, disclosed this in an interview with Radio Ghana during the launch of the sixtieth anniversary celebration in Nalerigu. He said the center keeps some of the children and their parents for long periods to educate them on nutrition. "The situation is very bad, all the communities around us have cases of malnourished children, if you go round you will find at least four malnourished children in every community and we need to educate them on how to properly feed these children," he emphasized. He explained that malnutrition in the area remains high as a result of ignorance, belief systems and poverty. The Baptist Medical Center was established in 1958 and has since grown in strength, serving hundreds of thousands of clients annually. The yearlong celebration is on the theme: "Sixty years of promoting good health among rural folks, the Christian way." Speaking at the launch of the anniversary, the administrator of the facility, Edward Addai, disclosed that, the hospital recorded over three thousand successful deliveries in 2017. He explained that the number represents a significant improvement over previous years where they recorded about two thousand five hundred births. The hospital also recorded eighty thousand outpatients cases within the year under review. More than four thousand surgeries were also performed at the facility in 2017. Mr. Adda noted that in spite of the success, the hospital faces a number of challenges especially key inadequate key medical personnel. "We have acute shortage of critical staff especially gynecologist and midwives, there are only four permanent midwives in this hospital," he lamented. He added that the center also has a "high wage bill as a result of over forty percent non-mechanized staff and delay of national health insurance reimbursement." By Murtala Issah GBCONLINE ---DECRYPTED---