Asante Akim Central Municipal Hospital opened
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, yesterday inaugurated the 60-bed Asante Akim Central Municipal Hospital in Konongo in the Ashanti Region, saying the government would deliver important physical infrastructure to improve the well-being of Ghanaians.
He said the $35.86-million project was part of the $339 million Ghana Hospitals Project originally drafted in 2008.
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During the inauguration of the project, which was part of the President’s four-day tour of the Ashanti Region, he said the Ghana Hospitals Project consisted of six facilities, including the 500-bed Afari Military Hospital in Kumasi, the 250-bed Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewuah and the 60-bed district hospital in Salaga in the East Gonja District.
President Akufo-Addo said the facility would bring relief to residents of Konongo and its surrounding communities.
He said the other facilities that formed part of the Ghana Hospitals Project would be completed by the first quarter of next year.
Critics
Earlier, the President had paid a courtesy call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to inform him about his visit to the region to inspect some development projects being undertaken by the State.
He said the tour would silence critics who had accused him of sidelining the Ashanti Region, noting that the government had undertaken many development projects in the region to improve the living standards of the people.
In the roads sector, he said aside from the 100-kilometre Kumasi inner roads constructed under his watch, the region had also benefitted from 300km of asphalting.
Besides that, he said, the region was benefiting from 32 hospital projects, the largest and highest investment in the health sector by any government in Ghana.
Formalities
Yesterday’s official formalities brought to six the number of hospitals completed by Euroget De-Invest among the nine hospital projects awarded to the Egyptian investment company.
The company had earlier delivered the Wa Regional Hospital in the Upper West Region, the Ga South Municipal Hospital in the Greater Accra Region, the Twifo-Atti-Morkwa District Hospital in the Central Region, the Tain District Hospital in the Bono Region and the Ahafo Ano North Municipal Hospital in Tepa in the Ashanti Region.
Although long completed, the handing over and inauguration of the facility had to wait until yesterday as officials fixed the two-and-a-half-kilometre access road, said to be outside the scope of the main contract.
Project features
The 60-bed municipal hospital, sited on a 145,000 square-metre land, will run dental, cardiology, ophthalmology, pediatric, gynaecology and orthopaedic clinics, along with four operating theatres and a complementary 10-unit staff accommodation.
It also has a mini-market, a staff dining facility, a kitchen, pharmacy, a physiotherapy unit, a accommodation for lactating mothers and a mortuary, as contained in the standard Euroget hospital project.
The hospital has three wells on the compound integrated into the back-up water supply system that fills a 250-cubic-metre tank serving as a reservoir.
The beautiful physical infrastructure is complemented by green landscaping, a fine line of trees, interlinked covered walkways and a tarred internal road network.
It is a two-and-a-half kilometre drive from the hospital to the main road from Bogu and expected to take off some pressure off the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi and serve as a referral facility for smaller health centres in the region, with the laboratories, pharmacies and other complementary services making it a complete healthcare service destination.
Appeal
The Chief of Konongo, Nana Dr Awuah Abedimisa II, expressed gratitude to the President and the government for completing the project to bring health care to the people.
He said the facility could be used as a training ground for physician assistants and nursing students of the Agogo Nursing and Midwifery College.
Maintenance
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, urged the community and the district to take good care of the facility so that it could last longer.