The Minority in Parliament believes President Akufo-Addo is planning to construct polyclinics and health centers instead of the district hospitals he is promising.
The minority in a statement signed by its Spokesperson on Health Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said its belief stemmed from the $16.88million budgeted for each of the District hospitals.
President Akufo- Addo at a ceremony to break ground to build the ‘state of the art” 101 district hospitals with staff accommodation for doctors and nurses, said $12.88million would be spent on the construction with the remaining $4million being used to stock the facilities.
The minority however says “allocating a budget of $16.88 million per hospital or $1,704.88 million for the 101 district hospitals is woefully inadequate and raises issues about the standard of hospitals government wants to build.”
The minority said the budgetary is inconsistent with World Health Organization (WHO) standards and prescriptions.
“Not so long ago we were all well informed in parliament that to build a standard WHO district hospital government requires about £32million or $40million dollars. This was the case when government brought the agreement for funding of the Shama District Hospital, a project which is currently uncompleted. Are we therefore getting a WHO-standard district hospital or we should expect health centres?” the minority queried.
The minority is also concerned with the allocation of GH¢779 in the 2021 budget for the project.
According to the minority the allocation only covers 8 district hospitals.
“Interestingly, although an allocation of GH₵ 1,476 million was made for the provision of Health Infrastructure or Agenda 111 projects, the amount has been slashed by almost half to the current allocation of GH₵ 779 million. How government expects to construct 101 district hospitals from GH₵ 779million is a puzzle.”
“Also, dividing the total allocation by a Cedi conversion of $16.88m should provide about 8 hospitals and not the 87 the President announced. We therefore demand that government should at the very least provide a master plan that spells out the sources of funding, the annual funding amount and credible timelines within which Ghanaians can expect the completion of the Agenda 111 hospitals,” the minority stated.
Story: Sena Nombo/radiogoldlive.com
