Kwaku Agyeman-Manu
Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has disclosed that government plans to construct new hospitals across the country in the quest to provide quality healthcare for Ghanaians.
He made this assertion when the President, Nana Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the construction of the Eastern Regional Hospital in Koforidua.
Addressing the gathering, Mr Agyemang-Manu indicated that, it is of much value that the Eastern Region with 11.5% of the country’s population and the third most populous region after the Ashanti and Greater Accra be provided with a befitting state of the art ultra-modern health facility to meet the ever-increasing healthcare needs of residents.
He stated that, the 94-year-old regional hospital constructed in 1926 has seen two major structural changes in 1972 and 1998 when additional functional areas were added to expand the scope of services and for that matter, expressing joy about the construction of the new Koforidua regional hospital for the fact that the current functional area of the hospital is woefully inadequate.
He explained that the hospital serves as a referral point for about 16 districts hospitals in the Region with a population of about 3.3 million which is on record that the average daily attendance for 2019 was 927 which suggests the need for the reconstruction to cope with the huge numbers of Ghana.
According to him, the Ministry of Health has made significant progress in addressing the infrastructural gap in the health sector with massive support from the president, Nana Akuffo-Addo.
He said the reconstruction of the Koforidua regional hospital is in fulfilment of government commitment to ensure universal health coverage to all citizens in Ghana in line with government vision under the sustainable development goal.
“It is imperative to mention that all these projects are not part of the agenda 88 projects promised by the government to initiate in districts without hospitals. My ministry has full support from the president” he said.
He affirmed that government has completed works on a number of health facilities: 10 polyclinics in the central, five in Greater Accra, Upper West regional hospital, and Ga-East district hospital which coincidentally is the current treatment centre for the battle against coronavirus pandemic.
He also revealed district hospitals that have been slated for completion by October this year including, Somanya, Weta in Volta, Akaba, Dupe and Kolon, Bekwai, Tepa, Nsawkaw and Twifo Praso Hospitals respectively.
He added that the retooling and reequipping of four health facilities in Eastern region including, Aburi District Hospital, Tetteh Quarshie memorial hospital in Mampong, Kyebi Government hospital and Atibie hospital are ongoing.
Mr Agyemang-Manu stressed that construction of five health facilities in the Western and Western-North region – Akontomra, Elubo, Bogoso, Tarkwa Nsuaem, Wasa Tarkwa, and the upgrade of Mpohor health facility is on course.
He said, there is a progress in the construction of 15 CHPS compounds and another 26 located in some selected district in regions such as Bono, Central, Eastern, Ashanti, Western-North, Greater Accra and Volta.
He indicated that to further address the infrastructural deficit of the health sector, the government has secured funding to implement a number of projects in 2020 one of them is the sod-cutting ceremony to herald its commencement of the new eastern regional hospital.
He said, aside from the sod-cutting ceremony in the Eastern Region, there would be a similar ceremony in the course of the year to herald the construction and equipping of 12 maternity at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, La General hospital, Sub-regional hospital at Tema, reconstruction of the central medical store, construction of trauma hospitals in Anyinam and Obuasi, refurbishment and reequipping of Enyiresi and Obuasi hospitals, construction of accident and emergency centre at Dormaa hospital, and the Nkoranza district hospital.
He opined that there will be construction of 12 new hospitals in Jumapo, Kwabeng, Nkwatia, Adukrom, Achease, Suame, Drobonso, Sabronom, Manso – Nkwanta, among others.
He added that the government has started the construction of nine comprehensive infectious disease centres in the country which started to fight Covid-19.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Koforidua