President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Wednesday afternoon, cut sod for the construction of the Eastern Regional Hospital.
The €70 million project, which will be the first phase, to be undertaken by Ellipse Projects and Tyllium will be located on the Koforidua-Akwadum road.
The project is part of the promised 88 district and regional hospitals promised by the president in one of his COVID-19 TV address.
In addition to the regional hospitals, 88 new district hospitals will be built while some existing hospitals will be upgraded.
President Akufo-Addo assured on Sunday, April 26, 2020 that the construction of the district hospitals will take one year to complete.
“All these are expected to be completed within one year. Each of them will be a quality, standard design 100-bed hospital with accommodation for doctors, nurses, and other health workers and the intention is to complete them within a year,” the President said in one of his periodic updates on the fight against coronavirus.
President Akufo-Addo had indicated that his government will begin constructing 88 hospitals in the districts without hospitals and Eastern Region will benefit from eight of these projects in addition to the regional hospital.
The breakdown for the rest of the regions are ten in Ashanti, nine in Volta, nine in Central, seven in Greater Accra, seven in Upper East, five in Northern, five in Oti, five in Upper West, five in Bono, four in Western North, four in Western, three in Ahafo, three in Savannah, two in Bono East, and two in North East Regions.
Parliament has already approved a €56.1 million loan facility for the construction of 100-bed trauma hospitals at Obuasi and Anyinam as part of efforts to expand health care delivery in the country.
The government as part of the agreement will also build an Accident and Emergency center at Enyiresi Hospital and rehabilitate the Obuasi Health Centre.
The agreement is between the government of Ghana through the Finance Ministry and Deutsche Bank AG (as the arranger and original lender) and TMF Global Services (UK) Limited (as the facility arranger) to finance the project.
The project is expected to be completed three years after commencement and Ghana is expected to repay the loan within eight years.
The hospitals will come with an 18-bed Accident and Emergency ward for adults, 12-bed ward for Paediatric Emergencies and a 100-seater capacity waiting area.
Credit: Daily Guide