Our History

HISTORY OF ST. FRANCIS XAVIER CATHOLIC HOSPTAL
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Hospital as it is currently known started as a small community clinic by the Assin District Council in the early 1950s and managed by the Council as well. The establishment of the clinic was highly motivated by the trio, namely; Afotuakwa, Atendansu and Apemanim Traditional Councils. The trio therefore as a matter of principle became the trustees or better still board of directors of the clinic.
In their quest to embrace modern health care delivery coupled with the deepest confidence they had in the Catholic Health Delivery Systems, the trio extended an invitation to the late Most Rev. John Kwadwo Amissah, the then Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of the Metropolitan Province of Cape Coast and Sekondi/Takoradi Dioceses. The Archbishop gracefully accepted the invitation to treat and took over the administration of the clinic, placed it under the control of Our Lady of the Apostles (OLA) Sisters to run the facility. The administration of the OLA Sisters did not last for long, due to capacity dryness.
During this same period there were a lot of Dutch health practitioners who were fraternizing with many Catholic health institutions in Ghana. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise at all when the OLA Sisters indicated their disinterest to continue with the running of the clinic, quickly, as a matter of urgency, the administration of the clinic was entrusted to the care of the Dutch Lay Organization in the late 1950s.
In lieu of the forward and backward movements, the Late Archbishop sought to find a lasting solution to the permanent management of the hospital. It did not take him much longer period than in 1962; he encountered the St. John of God Brothers in Sefwi Asafo. The Brothers were over ten years in Ghana serving the sick both in Asafo and Koforidua, Western and Eastern Regions respectively. Assessing the enormity of workloads at hand, the Hospitallers Brothers were very sincere in the reply to His Grace to take over the administration of Foso Catholic Hospital. Alternatively, they suggested to him their counterparts, the Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who equally had advanced in health knowledge and greatly resourceful in the true sense of health care delivery systems. The Brothers (particularly Fr. Aurelio Gornollon) played a liaison role between the Ordinary of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast and General Council of Sisters Hospitallers in Rome. With all earnestness and strong passion, the Archbishop emphatically pushed very hard with his correspondence to ensure outright ownership of the hospital to the Sisters Hospitallers.
Trusting that Heavens would grant his godly request through the Sisters Hospitallers, Archbishop John Kojo Amissah made these two dispassionate appeals to the Sisters: the 4 or 5 Sisters he requested for should all be nurses but importantly one of them should be a MIDWIFE and all should be FLUENT in the use of the English Language. Therefore, it raises no qualms whatsoever why the early Sisters were all from the English Province and the trend has continued till date.
After the visits of the Superior General, Mother Maximina, and her secretary, Maria Lina, and also the Counsellor for the English Delegation to Ghana on 16th August, 1963, to meet, assess and finalize ownership arrangements and agreements with the Archdiocese of Cape Coast, processes for the final coming of the Sisters started with all earnestness. The processing of visa documentations of the Sisters was not without challenges, especially at the Ghana Embassy in London. Eventually, the Sisters would have to go to Rome to finalize their visa documentations.
Finally, in 1965, everything was set for the Sisters to come to Ghana. On 22nd February, 1965, the four Sisters came by Alitalia to Ghana and were welcomed at the Ghana Airport by His Grace the Late Archbishop John Kojo Amissah, the Hospitaller Brothers and the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cape Coast. The quartet passed the first night in Ghana in Cape Coast at the Archbishop’s House. So, the first four (4) Spanish Sisters Hospitallers to come to Assin Foso to what later became known as Catholic Hospital were Sisters: Rita de Jesus Labiano (Mother Superior), Rosa de Puy Munarriz, Candida de San Luis and Marina de Maria. Among were three general nurses and a midwife. This also was in line with the specific request contained in the final letter of His Grace the late Archbishop John Kojo Amissah through the Provincial Delegate, Fr. Gornollon, to the Sisters Hospitallers Council in 1963.
Interestingly, the Dutch Lay Organization did not leave right-away but rather left behind skeletal lay nurses to ensure smooth and successful handing over and transitional processes.
The Sisters Hospitallers inherited not only lapidated but also very skeletal infrastructures from their predecessors. The Sisters took over, a small OPD with Dispensary, small Maternity Ward, General Ward and a Theatre. Decisively, the Sisters were very strategic. They took leading roles in day-to-day running of the facility by appointing themselves as in-charges of all the units with the help of other skilled locals they came to meet. The total bed complement then was 50 beds. They also inherited a convent which could inhabit six to seven nuns at that time.
The first medical doctor to work with the Sisters in Foso Catholic Hospital was Dr. Antonio Miralles from Zaragoza in Spain. Dr. Miralles had already been in Ghana for the past two (2) years but working with St. John of God Brothers in Koforidua whilst awaiting the arrival of the Sisters Hospitallers. He was bi-specialist as surgeon and internist.
Immediate after Dr. Miralles was Dr. Federico who was nick-named the Hunter because of his hunting expedition or explores. He was also a Spaniard. After the Spanish doctors saw the influx of the Dutch doctors and notably among them were Doctors: Bratt, Trompetter, Fonlka Maima and wife Elizabeth, Anthony Ben-Hustel, Francis Fonville and De-Vries.
The facility was happy to enjoy the services of Dr. Alphonse Ring De-Ciman a Sudanese refugee in Ghana in early 1990s. Amidst these gifted hands from abroad, also there was Dr. Asamoah, a Ghana Medical Officer who worked briefly with the Sisters in the hospital.
Of course, the Sisters did not live without some initial challenges. They faced climatic challenges as well as social and economic difficulties even though they were heavily supported by both the provincial and general councils. But interestingly, it did not take them long for them to see light at the end of the tunnel. The community as always, were very friendly, generous and sociable to the Sisters. They did not only provide basic food items like fruits, vegetables and livestock gifts of fowls, goat and sheep to the Sisters but also the community became basic hub of employment avenue for the Sisters. It turned out to be that about 90% of the workforce as at that time was indigenes of Assin.
One particular gesture of the community which for so many years captured the attention of the early Sisters was an extraordinary presentation made by a Muslim man. This man lost a wife through labour just a week after the arrival of the quartet. Upon hearing of the presence of the Sisters in Foso, he decided to bring the boy whose name was only captured as Kofi as his gift to the Sisters. They were very happy even though it was a sad story- they accepted the responsibility to care for the boy.
The situation quickly engendered a kind of re-awakening thoughts in them as to why His Grace Archbishop Amissah categorically stressed that among the Sisters coming there should be a midwife. This coupled with the prevailing predicaments; the early Sisters set machinery in motion for infrastructural transformation in the hospital.
Under the Sisters Hospitallers, the hospital was upgraded to the District Hospital status. Until 1988, the hospital was simply known as Foso Catholic Hospital. But when it was christened, the name of the hospital became St. Francis Xavier Hospital until in 2023 when the Catholic Health Service Trust, Ghana enjoined all facilities under the trust to add Catholic to the names of their facilities. Thus, the name became St Francis Xavier Catholic Hospital and so it has been known to date. Being missionaries, the Spanish Congregation of the Sisters Hospitallers preferred the hospital to be named after St. Francis Xavier, the patron saint of the missionaries. At present, the hospital is a full member of the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG). Currently, it has a bed complement of 158 and a catchment population of over 230,000 serving both Assin and beyond.
In November, 2023, the hospital was upgraded to a Secondary level facility by the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA) and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) with a prescribing level D, a significant milestone which is a testament of our commitment to providing quality healthcare. In the same year, an assessment was conducted by Safecare, an international assessment body on quality health improvement standards, placed the facility at level 4, the highest so far in the country. Through dedication and hard work, the hospital was adjudged the best performing hospital in Ghana by the Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2013. The hospital is a practical training facility for various health educational institutions within and outside Ghana. Our multifaceted maternity complex which is soon to be commissioned will help offer quality maternal care to our catchment population. As part of our effort to reduce oxygen wastage and breakage of oxygen flowmeters, the hospital has constructed an in-house oxygen plant which connect to the wards.
Currently the hospital offers services in the following areas; General Medicine and Surgery, OPD and In-Patient Services, Paediatric services, Obstetrics and Gynaecological services, Urological services, Dental services, ENT services, Specialist Diagnostics, Ophthalmology, Physiotherapy, Laboratory Services, Pharmaceutical Services, Reproductive and Child Health Services, Emergency Medicine and Blood, Transfusion Services, Psychological services, Mortuary services Psychiatry, Family Medicine and Water Production.
To give a realistic insight into St Francis Xavier Catholic Hospital, this is what 2023 looked like in numbers; Total OPD attendance was 116,237 with an average daily attendance of 318. While total Ward Admissions stood at 11,167 and Average daily admissions was 33. The Client Satisfaction Index was 94.8%as compared to 78.3% in 2022 further deepening our commitment in the quality of service delivery to our cherished client.