A former Deputy of Health Minister under the erstwhile Mahama administration, Rojo Mettle Nunoo, has described the hospital inflation cost comments by the Vice President as debatable, adding that his allegations cannot be verified.
Dr. Bawumia, who spoke at a Value for Money Conference in Accra on Monday explained that a comparative analysis reveals that better quality hospitals are currently built at more cost-effective rates in places like India and elsewhere than in Ghana.
According to Dr. Bawumia, Ghana constructs 60-80 bed district hospitals for $25 million.
He added that the African Development Bank constructed a 150-bed hospital in Accra a few years ago for GHC5.76 million or $1.3 million, which was without equipment.
“Even if we have to equip this hospital for some $1 million or $2 million, the total cost will be some $3 million,”he said.
However, speaking to Ekourba Gyasi on Atinka AM Drive, Rojo Mettle Nunoo mentioned that all hospital projects cannot be grouped into one category.
He added that all projects have specifics and that there are technical considerations that go into the costing of each hospital project constructed.
He explained that each government has certain obligations when hospital projects are being constructed.
“Normally the provision of access roads, water, electricity, are obligations of Presidents and they are not seen as cost to the project… So if an ADB project is valued in a certain way, it is in respect of the scope of work. You will notice for example that the ADB project did not substantially cover the medical equipment and the biomedical equipment and other services that should be part of the budget because in the scope of work that was not defined. So you cannot just make a blanket statement and say the that projects have been overvalued”, he fumed.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa