President Nana Akufo-Addo on Wednesday commissioned the new 60-bed Ahafo Ano Municipal Hospital, located in Tepa, in the Ashanti Region.
The hospital, initiated by former President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2008 as part of the ‘Ghana Hospitals Project’, is the third such Hospital to be commissioned by Akufo-Addo.
It follows the opening of the Upper West Regional Hospital in Wa and the Ga East Municipal Hospital, in Accra, which is now one of the country’s foremost COVID19 Treatment Centres.
The Tepa Hospital, according to the President, has been long awaited and is good that, today, the demand for a Municipal Hospital of quality has been realized, as residents and surrounding health facilities will now gain access to improved healthcare from the Ahafo Ano Municipal Hospital.
The “Ghana Hospital Project” involves the design, construction and equipping of the Military Hospital, two Regional Hospitals, and six District Hospitals in Ghana, at a project cost of $339 million.
It falls under the broader objective of providing infrastructure for the delivery of effective healthcare to the citizenry.
Other hospitals being constructed under this Project are a 250-bed Regional Hospital in Sewua, Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region and a six-bed District Hospital in Twifo Praso, in the Central Region.
It also included a 60-bed District Hospital at Nsawkaw, Salaga and Konongo in the Bono East, Savannah and Ashanti Regions. Another 500-bed Military Hospital at Afari again, in the Ashanti Region is being constructed.
All of these projects, the President stressed, are expected to be commissioned before the end of this year.
The Ahafo Ano Municipal Hospital has been constructed at a cost of $36 million and has been designed with several departments including administration, outpatient department (OPD), physiotherapy unit, pharmacy, radiology, laboratory, surgical suite (operation dep.), emergency & casualty and obstetrics & gynaecology (maternity and child health).
The rest are central sterile supply department; ambulance station; inpatient wards – 100 bed capacity, staff dining, kitchen & outdoor cooking area, medical gases production unit, laundry, mortuary, medical waste department, general stores, maintenance department, power station, relatives’ hostel, 20 staff housing units and a mini market.
Additionally, the Hospital has been equipped with modern medical equipment, such as x-ray machines, ultrasound machines, fully equipped operating theatre, medical gases, and patient monitors.
It also has a medical waste treatment plant, a power station, a water treatment plant, a central air conditioning system and an anaerobic sewerage treatment plant.
To the Chiefs and people of Tepa, President Akufo-Addo reiterated his commitment to improving access to essential and quality health services through the provision of the necessary health infrastructure, equipment and logistics, including the deployment of appropriate technology, as part of our drive to attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
He urged administrators of the to embrace and strengthen the culture of maintenance.
“This edifice has been put at great cost to our nation, and we should be in the position, some ten years down the line, to see it still in good condition. It should not fall in the ways in which several institutions like this in Ghana have gone.
“The leadership of this facility must set the example for its periodic and constant maintenance, and will be held accountable for this,” he added.