Konongo Hospital to be ready in 4 weeks
One of the hospitals being constructed by Egyptian firm, Euroget De-Invest, for the government is expected to be ready in a month as engineers put finishing touches on its construction.
The Konongo District Hospital is currently 97 per cent complete, according to site engineers, and what remains to be done include the testing of equipment, cleaning up of surfaces and systems, and some external works such as decorations.
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The 60-bed hospital is, therefore, in line to be the sixth to be handed over by the Egyptian investment company, which was awarded the contract to construct nine hospitals across the country.
Otherwise, all of the physical infrastructure, installations, equipment, and systems on the 145,000-square metre plot are in place.
The project’s Resident Engineer, Mr Ahmed Massoud, told the Daily Graphic at the project site last Saturday that all materials needed to complete the work were on site.
He said the facility was likely to be ready for handover in the next four weeks, if no external factors emerged to frustrate the pace and process of work.
Power connection
About 200 workers, comprising technicians and artisans, were on site when a team of journalists toured the facility last Saturday.
They were busy running the systems, working the decorations, and fabricating handrails.
The testing processes, Mr Massoud said, would be enabled by the direct supply of electricity from the national grid to the hospital's power station — by the close of last Monday — following the installation of the necessary infrastructure.
The hospital, however, has a backup power plant as part of normal installations to accommodate the improved service it is expected to deliver to the society.
It hardly enjoys such luxury with water, however.
Mr Massoud said the hospital was yet to be connected to the main supply source of the Ghana Water Company Limited, and had relied on three wells dug on the compound and tanker services for all the water supplies during the construction process.
The wells had now been integrated into the backup water supply system that filled a 250-cubic-metre tank, serving as a reservoir, the resident engineer said.
Easing pressure
Equipped with modern installations and a wider range of medical capacity, it is expected to serve as a referral facility while absorbing some pressure off the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
It will run dental, cardiology, ophthalmology, pediatric, gynecology, and orthopaedic clinics along with four operating theatres, and a complementary 10-unit staff accommodation.
The hospital also has a mini-market, staff dining facility, a kitchen, pharmacy, physiotherapy unit, a housing accommodation for lactating mothers, and a mortuary as contained in the standard Euroget project.
Pool access road
But the beautiful physical infrastructure, complemented by the green landscaping, a fine line of growing tree seedlings, interlinked covered walkways, and an already tarred internal road network, is detracted by a poor access road.
The two-and-a-half kilometre drive from the hospital to the main road from Bogu remains untarred, bumpy, and riddled with patches of huge mounds and gullies.
Background
Euroget De-Invest has already delivered the Wa Regional Hospital, Ga East Municipal Hospital, the Tain District Hospital, the Ahafo Ano North Municipal Hospital and the Twifo-Atti-Morkwa District Hospital.
Along with the Konongo District Hospital, the investment company is also expected to deliver new military hospital at Afari and a regional hospital at Sewua, both in Ashanti Region, and a district hospital in Salaga of the Northern Region.
