It was all joy when President Akufo-Addo cut the tape for the opening of a 60-bed capacity hospital in Twifo Praso last Friday.
The Twifo Atti Morkwa District Government Hospital was started by the previous Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration in 2008 but was abandoned under the Mills-Mahama administration and only completed by the Akufo-Addo administration as part of the Euroget SA of Egypt projects.
The hospital has 28 medical and non medical buildings, 10 units staff housing, four theatres, dental clinic, medical cardiology, ophthalmology, pediatric, gynaecology and a general surgery and orthopedic departments as well as an 18-body capacity mortuary with a medical waste treatment department.
It is the fifth being commissioned by the President under the GHP, following the opening of the Upper West Regional Hospital in Wa, the Ga East Municipal Hospital in Accra, the Ahafo Ano Municipal Hospital in Tepa and the Tain Municipal Hospital in Nsawkaw.
Opening the facility at Twifo Praso in the Central Region, President Akufo-Addo said residents and surrounding health facilities would now gain access to improved health care, adding that it was his “government’s goal to establish a strong and accessible healthcare system of world class quality which will guarantee the health and wellbeing of our people.”
He said since assuming office in 2017, his administration had each year provided financial clearance for the recruitment of a total of 969,000 permanent and temporary health workers, promising that “with four more for Nana and the NPP, we will do even more for you.”
The President reiterated his call for would-be managers of the hospital to embrace and strengthen the culture of maintenance since it had come at a great cost to the nation.
The GHP involves the design, construction and equipping of a military hospital, two regional hospitals and six district hospitals in Ghana at a project cost of US $339million and falls under the broader objective of providing infrastructure for the delivery of effective health care to the citizenry.
Other hospitals being constructed are the 250-bed Regional Hospital in Sewia in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region, a 60-bed hospital in Salaga in the Savannah Region and another 60-bed hospital in Konongo, also in the Ashanti Region, which are all expected to be commissioned by the end of the first quarter of the year 2021.
Omanhene of Twifo Traditional area, Obrempong Appiah Nuamah II, thanked President Akufo-Addo for delivering on his promise.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu