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Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah has rejected claims the Akufo-Addo-led government has abandoned health projects in the region.
Mr. Osei-Mensah speaking at a press briefing on Monday (11 December) said the government has taken time and resources to complete projects bequeathed them.
Listing some of the projects that started under the current government and the erstwhile Mahama administration, the Regional Minister said at least 25 of the 32 health facilities will be commissioned starting next year.
“All along, people were saying that the government had abandoned hospital projects in the region but as I have shown you, none of them has been abandoned and most of them have been commissioned and are in use and the few ones that have not been commissioned are also 95 per cent complete. So hopefully, by the end of the first quarter of 2024, those will have been completed”, the Minister said.
The Regional Minister’s account follows widespread criticism that the government has failed to complete projects started by the NDC government. Mr Osei-Mensah however says the government has the strength to meet the targets set to operationalise those projects.
The Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang, also said facilities within Greater Kumasi, upon completion, will be converted into specialist hospitals to ease pressure on the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
“When you go to the Greater Accra region, there are so many hospitals that when you have a crisis, you will go. But when you come to Kumasi, it is only Komfo Anokye, and it is a teaching hospital. So, you have to get primary care and secondary care before tertiary care.
But we don’t have that here, and so everybody is moving to Komfo Anokye, which is increasing the workload. Anytime you increase the workload, the quality of care will go down. The strategy is that we need to have more of these hospitals to cushion Komfo Anokye. So, all the hospitals that will be opened, we will convert them into specialist hospitals to reduce the referrals that are going to Komfo Anokye”, he said.
SOURCE: DAILY MAIL GH
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