The Minister Designate for Heath, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, says government is yet to start work on the 88 hospitals in some districts without hospitals as promised.
The President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo in April 2020 during his 8th Covid-19 update announced his government’s decision to build over 88 hospitals in some districts without hospitals.
According to the President, the project forms part of measures being taken by government to fight the covid-19 pandemic.
“Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our health care infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will this year begin construction eighty-eight (88) hospitals in district without hospitals… each of them will be a quality, standard design, one hundred bed hospital, with accommodation for doctors, nurses, and other health workers and the intention is to complete them within a year….” Akufo Addo said.
Speaking before the Appointments Committee, Kwaku Agyeman Manu explained that the delay in the work is a result of failure of some district assemblies to provide site plans for the project.
According to him,some of the lands presented also have litigation matters that needs to be settled before the commencement of the project.
“The local government ministry was to write to the various district assemblies for them to allocate lands and give us the site plan for where they want the hospitals…As I speak, we have about 13 Districts that we have not completed the exercise. We sent teams into various zones of the country, some of them have litigation matters that we have to find a way to settle. Contracts have been awarded and we are waiting to do proper sod cutting for actual construction to start.”
“The preliminary works have actually been done, we are not waiting for the ones that haven’t submitted site plans or have land issues. We have faced challenges. In the midst of Covid-19, things were not moving as they should, that is why you see that we might not have started serious work on any of them but we are working seriously on the matter”, Kwaku Agyemang Manu told the appointment committee.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa
