The government is constructing a new Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory (Cathlab) at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi to reduce preventable deaths from cardiac emergencies in the Ashanti Region and its environs.
The laboratory is expected to expand access to affordable specialised heart treatment for patients in the Ashanti Region and its environs.
The project, which will also serve as the Cardiothoracic Centre for KATH, forms part of the government’s efforts to decentralise advanced health care and reduce the need to transfer critically ill patients to other facilities.
The project is being funded by the Ghana Medical Trust Fund, popularly known as Mahama Cares, to provide care for cardiac conditions not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Saving life
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, disclosed this when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Local Government and Rural Development last Monday.
He said the project, which was 85 per cent complete and expected to be completed in December this year, would save lives and reduce deaths from heart-related conditions.
“The cardiothoracic centre will have an interventional cardiology unit and radiology facilities where doctors can use catheters and specialised equipment inserted through blood vessels to diagnose and treat heart conditions without having to open up the patient for surgery”.
Curbing needless deaths
The minister said before the government’s intervention, there was only one such facility, located at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, leaving patients in other parts of the country with limited access to time-sensitive cardiac interventions.
In many cases, he said if there were problems with heart-related cases within KATH or any other hospital, patients had to be flown to Accra.
“With heart problems, care must be given within a space of a few minutes,” he said, citing how in 2025 one specialist at KATH, Dr Kwame Adu Ofori, died from a heart condition that needed urgent intervention.
He said the doctor’s death necessitated the call for the government to establish Cathlabs in other major hospitals.
Under the programme, he said, the government had prioritised Cathlab facilities at Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye and the Tamale Teaching Hospital.
Other health facilities
At the secondary level, he said, the government was working to complete and operationalise two hospitals — the Trede and the Oforikrom hospitals — which were started by the previous administration.
Besides, he said at the primary level, 96 different health projects were being undertaken under a decentralised healthcare initiative.
These comprise 73 Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, nine health centres and 14 upgrades of existing hospitals.
Road projects
The regional minister also updated the committee on road projects in Kumasi and other parts of the Ashanti Region, including the Sofoline Interchange, the Suame Interchange and the Outer Kumasi Ring Road.
The minister said the government was also preparing to construct an underpass at Bantama to manage the anticipated increase in traffic in the area following the completion of the Suame Interchange.
He said the underpass would allow some vehicles to travel over the intersection while others passed underneath, helping to ease congestion.
