Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia has broken ground for construction works to begin on a 100-bed district hospital for the Ejura Sekyere Odumasi District in the Ashanti Region.
The hospital project, which forms part of the government's flagship Agenda 111 programme, is expected to have state-of-the-art equipment including X-rays, medical gases, a haematology analyzer, chemistry analyzer, CT scanner, MRI, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, mammography and a Microbiology Analyzer.
It is also expected to have accommodation for some staff. The entire project is expected to be completed in 18 months for $16m.
In brief remarks at the ceremony, held at Ejura on Tuesday, Dr Bawumia expressed the government's commitment to securing the improved welfare of all Ghanaians, hence the decision, among others, to construct 111 hospitals of varied usage to ensure every district has a hospital and within reach of a higher-level facility.
"This (Agenda 111) is the biggest investment in hospital infrastructure in Ghana's history since Independence. We want to ensure that every district in Ghana has a hospital. We have six new regions, so we are also building six new regional hospitals, as well as upgrading the Efia Nkwanta hospital (Western Region). We will also construct two new psychiatric hospitals, in Kumasi and Tamale," he stressed.
The government, Dr Bawumia noted, has also undertaken several initiatives to increase access to and improve the delivery of health care, such as the provision of ambulances nationwide under the One Constituency, One Ambulance programme; ongoing networking of hospitals to facilitate access to medical case histories; introduction of the drone medical delivery system and the E-Pharmacy regime.
"We will continually explore ways to improve our healthcare delivery approaches and systems" he pledged, adding, "A healthy nation is a wealthy nation. We all need our strengths to develop Ghana the way we want to."
Commending the government for the hospital project, the chief of Ejura, Barima Osei Hwedie II, expressed delight at the quantum of projects undertaken in Ejura and its environs in the past six and a half years, "facilitated mainly through the efforts of the Vice President," and urged his citizens to support national development projects.
