The country’s health sector may not have seen any significant improvement especially in terms of infrastructure more than a year after Citi FM began its intensive campaign highlighting many abandoned projects within the sector.
Besides the financial implications the abandoning of these physical projects have on the country, it represents the failing chances at survival of the many Ghanaians who are rushed past these facilities and transported several kilometers away in times of emergencies.
After compiling a list of about 18 abandoned and completed but not functioning health facilities (excluding Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS), we estimated the cost to be about $1 billion and the job creation potential to be 5000 jobs.
In August 2018, the government, like previous ones said it was actively pursuing the completion of some abandoned hospitals aimed at tackling the health crisis the country faced.
It had identified 21 of them.
The assurance was premised on the petition Citi FM and OccupyGhana had sent to the Presidency demanding the operationalization of completed but non-functioning health facilities and timelines for the completion of abandoned ones.
The government through the Ministry of Health in a copious response to that petition gave specific timelines for the completion of the key health facilities it had identified and had direct oversight responsibility for.
The facilities were the Wa Regional Hospital, Madina district hospital, Nsawkaw district hospital and the Tepa district hospital.
The others were the Twifo Praso hospital, Kumasi Regional hospital, Salaga district hospital and Konongo district hospital.
The timelines given by the government for the completion of the various projects are highlighted below:
Six months later, Citi News can report that four out the number have already missed their deadlines with quite a number of significant works yet to be done to make them fit for use.
The four others, which are expected to be completed between April and August 2019 appear likely to miss their respective deadlines.
Work on the projects since the government’s promises last year seem to have gone slower than expected with no clear reasons given by the government.
It remains unclear if the government will announce new timelines for the competition of those projects whose deadlines have been missed.
Until that is done, one will struggle to appreciate the significant improvement in the country’s health sector between last year and this year when a mass of the population agitated over the crisis in the country’s health sector and risks citizens face in dying needless and avoidable deaths due to the lack of access to quality healthcare.
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By: Jonas Nyabor | citinewsroom.com | Ghana
The post Gov’t misses own deadlines for completion of abandoned hospitals appeared first on Citi Newsroom.
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