The government has given assurance that it will complete the 25 new hospital projects in the Ashanti Region by the end of 2024.
Prominent among them are the Afari Military Hospital, the maternity and children block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as well as the hospitals at Sewua, Bekwai, Fomena, Tepa and Konongo.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, disclosed these at a media briefing in Kumasi yesterday on development within the health sector in the Ashanti Region since January 2017.
The press briefing, the first in the series and expected to be held monthly, was attended by Chief Executives of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, heads of department, and representatives from various groups within the region.
Some of the projects, he said were facilities passed down from the previous administration, with the majority of them being government-initiated projects.
The minister observed that, some inherited projects including the Sewua Regional Hospital, Bekwai, Tepa, Konongo and Kumawu district hospitals had been completed.
The rest of the projects, he noted were six district polyclinics including Twedie, Suame, Manso Nkwanta, Drobonso, Sabronom and Adugyama polyclinics.
These polyclinics according to the Minister “are all at 95 per cent complete with the contractors working on the installation of equipment”.
The minister refuted claims that the government had abandoned inherited projects.
“Indeed through the intervention of the Rebecca Foundation there is a fit-for-purpose Mother and Baby Unit at KATH,” he added.
He said the government, since 2017 had also initiated a number of health programmes and projects of which the Ashanti Region has had its fair share.
“These are the Zipline drone supply centre at Mampong, infectious diseases treatment centres at Sewua and Agogo, trauma and accident hospital at Obuasi, six district hospitals and 15 Agenda 111 projects as well as “one constituency one ambulance initiative of which the Ashanti Region was supplied with 39 ambulances”.
Under Agenda 111, the minister noted that the government was constructing 16 district hospitals in Trede, Kokoben, Boamang, Nsuta Sekyere, Manso Adubia, Mankranso, Kwabenakwa, Barekese, Kodie, Asiwa, Akrofuom, Adugyama, Adansi Asokwa, Asokore Mampong, Bantama and Nyinahin, in addition to the construction of a psychiatric hospital in Onwe, in the Ejisu Municipality.
The hospitals, according to him, were at various levels of completion and the government was working towards completing, at least half of them in the first quarter of 2024.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
