We have not abandoned hospital projects started by Mahama – Oppong Nkrumah

Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has debunked claims that the Akufo-Addo led administration has abandoned hospital projects started by the erstwhile Mahama administration.

Speaking on Accra based radio station, Citi FM, he said most of the projects are still work in progress and that some are faced with finance modelling difficulties.

Background

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Sunday, April 26, 2020, during his national address to update the nation on the Covid-19 pandemic, said the disease has not only disrupted people’s lives, but it had also exposed deficiencies in the country’s healthcare system, because of years of under-investment.

Also, the virus had revealed the unequal distribution of healthcare facilities, as the focus of infrastructure had been on Accra and one or two of our other big cities.

To help improve upon the existing situation, the President announced that the government had decided to undertake a major investment in the healthcare infrastructure, which will be the largest in the country’s history.

This, he said will involve the construction of 88 hospitals in the districts without hospitals.

The President added that each of the facilities would be a quality, standard-design, one hundred-bed hospital, with accommodation for doctors, nurses and other health workers”.

This announcement has generated public discussions about some hospital projects started by previous governments which have not been completed or have been abandoned apparently, while new health projects are being promised by the current government.

Explanation

But the Information Minister said the claim of abandonment is false and said a press conference will be held on Tuesday to update the country on the projects.

“The unfinished hospitals largely remain work in progress and we will give an update on where we picked them from and how far we have come with them”.

He explained that, “There are some that we have finished and opened up, some are near completion and some have gotten into financial and contractual difficulties because of some issues associated with them”.

“We will also give dates on when those in progress will be finished. It is to make the point that, some may be uncompleted still but they are not abandoned, it is work in progress, it will be finished by a particular time”.

“Some of these projects were even started during former President John Agyekum Kufuor’s time and it wasn’t completed in the 8 years not because the government was wicked and sort to abandon them but the module financing around them is the problem,” the Minister said.

source: graphic.com.gh