“Overly Ambitious” – Kweku Baako speaks on 88 hospitals Agenda

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako says President Nana Akufo-Addo cannot construct eighty-eight (88) district and six (6) Regional hospitals in a year.

President Akufo-Addo made a promise to construct ninety-four hospitals within one year commencing in 2020 noting this has been necessitated by the COVID-19 epidemic which has exposed Ghana’s healthcare system.

”There are eighty-eight (88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have 5 infectious disease control centres dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this’‘, the President indicated in his 8th nation address on COVID-19.

As a result, the government ”has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing eighty-eight (88) hospitals in the districts without hospitals. It will mean ten (10) in Ashanti, nine (9) in Volta, nine (9) in Central, eight (8) in Eastern, seven (7) in Greater Accra, seven (7) in Upper East, five (5) in Northern, five (5) in Oti, five (5) in Upper West, five (5) in Bono, four (4) in Western North, four (4) in Western, three (3) in Ahafo, three (3) in Savannah, two (2) in Bono East, and two (2) in North East Regions. Each of them will be a quality, standard-design, one hundred bed hospital, with accommodation for doctors, nurses and other health workers, and the intention is to complete them within a year. We have also put in place plans for the construction of six (6) new regional hospitals in the six (6) new regions, and the rehabilitation of the EffiaNkwanta Hospital, in Sekondi, which is the regional hospital of the Western Region. We are going to beef up our existing laboratories and establish new ones across every region for testing. We will establish three (3) infectious disease control centres for each of the zones of our country, i.e. Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern, with the overall objective of setting up a Ghana Centre for Disease Control”, the President underscored.

Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s ‘Kokrokoo’on Wednesday, Kweku Baako noted that though setting up the hospitals is feasible, he thinks it is an “overambitious” project and so believes it will take more than a year for the President’s promise to become a reality.

“I think it’s a bit ambitious. You might even say it’s overly ambitious but I haven’t said it is mission impossible. But I think it’s very ambitious; it will be difficult . . . In my candid opinion, by 12 months, I am not too sure that all would have completed. They would have started all but may not be able to complete it all. I’m a realist,” Mr. Baako stated emphatically.