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Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (2nd left) and Mr Albert Tackie (left) touring the Sege Polyclinic project. INSET: A view of the Sege Municipal Polyclinic
Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu (2nd left) and Mr Albert Tackie (left) touring the Sege Polyclinic project. INSET: A view of the Sege Municipal Polyclinic

Five polyclinics in Gt Accra to be ready next January

Work on five polyclinics under construction in the Greater Accra Region is expected to be completed by January next year for operations to commence to improve access to healthcare services in the region.

They comprise the Sege Municipal Polyclinic in the Ada West District, the Ashaiman Polyclinic in the Ashaiman municipality, the Bortianor Polyclinic in the Ga South municipality, the Oduman Polyclinic in the Ga West municipality and the Ogbojo Polyclinic in the Adentan municipality.

Work on the projects, being constructed at a cost of 13.5 million euros, started in May 2017 and all of them are about 80 per cent complete.

They will be handed over to the Ministry of Health (MoH) by December.

Each of the facilities will have 30 beds, an operation theatre, a laboratory, an X-ray Department, a pharmacy, wards, a counselling room and two staff bungalows.
The Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, inspected work on the Sege and the Ashaiman polyclinics yesterday.

Concern

At the Sege Polyclinic, the minister expressed concern that the facility, located along the Accra-Aflao Highway, had only one surgical ward.

He said the polyclinic would be crucial for emergency cases in the event of motor accidents on the stretch, hence the need for an additional ward to address complex cases.

“This is a major road and anything could happen. We must prepare to save lives at every moment in time,” he said.

The contractor said an additional ward could not be added now but a future expansion would include an additional ward.

Mr Agyeman-Manu tasked the assemblies benefiting from the projects to make funds ready to furnish the two bungalows that would be allocated to doctors at the facilities.

He also tasked them to fence the facilities after the completion of work on them to discourage encroachers from invading the lands that had been earmarked for future expansion.

The minister said the projects were being financed with a loan obtained from the Austrian Government.

For his part, the branch manager of Vamed Engineering Ghana Limited, the construction firm working on the project, Mr Albert Tackie, said the company was working hard and that the project would be handed over in December as promised.

Ashaiman Polyclinic

A team of health officials who met Mr Agyeman-Manu at the site of the Ashaiman Polyclinic expressed appreciation to the government for the relief the project would bring to them.

They said the facility would reduce the referral of cases to the Tema General Hospital and improve access to healthcare services in the area.

After the inspection tour, Mr Agyeman-Manu told journalists that the projects were being undertaken as part of the ministry’s effort to achieve universal health coverage in the country.

“It is within the policies of the MoH to provide district hospitals, such that people will be close to facilities to avoid referrals and travelling to see doctors. This will help prevent some health complications that occur as a result of the absence of nearby health facilities.

“If we are looking at achieving universal health coverage as part of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, then we must put facilities closer to our clients,” he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu said the health centres would boost the effort of the MoH to reduce maternal deaths which, according to him, occurred mainly because of the lack of nearby health facilities to offer services to pregnant women in emergency situations.

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