Gov’t sets new deadlines for completion of abandoned hospital projects

Government has shifted forward its earlier announced deadlines for the completion of eight major hospital projects across the country.

The facilities include two regional hospitals and the six district hospitals with a total bed capacity of 810.

The hospitals were part of the many uncompleted health facilities highlighted by Citi FM in its campaign for the completion of all abandoned and uncompleted hospitals.

As part of the campaign, Citi FM, together with OccupyGhana petitioned the President, Nana Akufo-Addo over the matter, among other things asking that the president puts in place and publish a clear roadmap with timelines for addressing the issue of abandoned and uncompleted health facilities.

The presidency in a response to the petition said the eight projects undertaken by Messrs Euroget De-Invest S.A at a cost of US$ 339 million “has suffered some setback culminating in delays in delivery.”

The office said although the contract was signed in January 2010, the project could not start until 2013 because of some conditions precedent for the effectiveness of the contract that could not be met by the government.

But as of April 2015, all the eight projects had started and were at various stages of completion.

President Akufo-Addo through the petition in August 2018 gave assurance that the projects will be completed according to the schedule below:

However, as of May 2019, five of the projects had already missed their deadlines.

They were the Nsawkaw District Hospital, Twifo Praso District Hospital, Madina District Hospital, Tepa District Hospital, and the Wa Regional Hospital.

The government subsequently announced new deadlines for all the projects without detailed reasons as to why the deadlines for the five projects were missed.

The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu at the Health Ministry’s Meet-the-Press session earlier this year said the projects will now be completed between July 2019 and June 2020.

In the presentation at the session, he announced the new deadlines as follows;

NMS projects

On the construction of the seven district hospitals under the NMS Infrastructure valued at US$175 million, the presidency responded to Citi FM and OccupyGhana’s petition noting that construction had commenced in earnest on all sites.

The sites are;

1. Sekondi-Takoradi Municipality [two projects]
2. Abetifi District
3. Garu District
4. Kumawu District
5. Fomena District
6. Dodowa District

The presidency’s response to the petition indicated the progress of work on the seven facilities as follows;

But the Minister of Health’s recent presentation at the Meet-the-Press series, in May 2019, disclosed the latest percentage of completion as follows;

The two information show slight variations in the figures presented between the information given from the presidency and the one announced recently by the Health Ministry.