The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, says the regional hospital which was inaugurated on August 18, this year, by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo will begin operations on December 1, 2019.
Dr Salih, who said this on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a meeting to constitute a five-member committee to investigate into the death of a two-year old boy due to alleged negligence of staff at the Wa Hospital, revealed that six medical doctors had already been posted to the facility.
“I want to announce that the new Upper West Regional Hospital will officially commence operations on December 1, by which time processes that would enable it operate fully, without hindrances would have been fully carried out; that is our target,” he stated.
Dr Salih explained that the hospital had successfully received certification from the Health Facilities Regulatory Authority and the licence had been used to apply to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to absolve the facility and make it as one of its clients.
He indicated that the accreditation from the NHIA was still pending, but other factors like staff training were also ongoing to ensure that the workers at the place were able to utilise the equipment installed for the various healthcare services.
“So far, 214 nurses have been recruited, and the last batch is undergoing training. A medical director has also been posted to the facility by the Ghana Health Service (GHS); we can assure you that in December, the hospital will be put to use,” he said.
Dr Salih said an application had been sent to the GHS to provide a seed capital for the hospital to begin operations.
He used the opportunity to appeal to health workers to accept posting to the region, as there were enough resources to harmonise their stay and work in the region.
Dr Salih said if there were vacancies for key positions like regional medical director, among others, preferences would be given to people who had stayed and worked in the region at the time when their services were needed most and not those who left after their training.
The Upper West Regional Hospital was inaugurated on August 18, 2019, by the President, but had not commenced operations since.
The delay in making the facility operational had led to several concerns from residents in the region.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
