President Akufo-Addo says his government is working to complete abandoned infrastructure in the health sector.
He said although there are difficulties in working on abandoned infrastructure as new ones are being put up, the government remains committed to completing them to improve the quality of health service delivery in the country.
Addressing parliament during his third state of the nation address on Thursday, Akufo-Addo noted that the incident of having many uncompleted and abandoned health facility projects is a sign of “underdevelopment” that has plagued the country for many years.
“We have problems of numerous structures at various stages of completion that cannot be finished and brought to use because new structures are being started and there is no money to finish the ones started earlier. Again, this is a long standing problem that is a mark of our underdevelopment. We will not ignore or sweep the problem under the carpet and we are dealing with it and we will complete them,” he said.
The government in August 2018 said it was actively pursuing the completion of some abandoned hospitals aimed at tackling the health crisis the country faced.
The assurance was premised on Citi FM and OccupyGhana petition to the Presidency demanding the operationalization of all completed but non-functioning health facilities and timelines for the competition of abandoned ones.
The government through the Ministry of Health in an extensive response to that petition gave specific timelines for the competition of the key health facilities it had identified and had direct oversight responsibility for.
The facilities were the Wa Regional Hospital, Madina district hospital, Nsawkaw district hospital and the Tepa district hospital.
The others were the Twifo Praso hospital, Kumasi Regional hospital, Salaga district hospital and Konongo district hospital.
But Citi FM’s latest checks revealed that the government had missed some of its deadlines, and it was unlikely to complete abandoned projects on time.
But the government insists that it is working to ensure that the abandoned and uncompleted infrastructure are completed and put to use.
President Akufo-Addo further added that the government is expecting some 275 ambulances in June 2019 to improve the delivering of emergency healthcare services in the country.
“We are expecting the arrival of 275 ambulances ie. 1 per constituency, to make treatment of emergency cases more effective. Drone technology has also been introduced into that system to help deliver essential medicines, blood and blood products to remote communities. We still face problems of inadequate infrastructure in our health establishments,” he said.
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By: Jonas Nyabor | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
