Ghana: Govt secures funds for KATH maternity clinic
Ghana: Govt secures funds for KATH maternity clinic
February 28, 2012
Ghana Broadcasting Corporation
Newborn News
Orgin: GBC News
The Government has secured a $240- million loan to complete the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s (KATH) Maternal and Child Welfare Clinic in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The 995-bed capacity and 10-theatre facility, which was started in 1974, has been a major headache to the hospital’s successive management and the public.
Its completion will ease congestion at the maternity block and boost maternal health care at the hospital.
The Minister of Health, Alban Sumanu Bagbin, said government has in addition earmarked GH¢12 million in the 2012 budget towards the project.
He said he was confident that all things being equal, the project should be completed by the end of next year.
He was speaking to reporters after inspecting facilities at KATH as part of his familiarisation tour of health institutions in the region yesterday.
The Minister visited the Accident and Emergency Centre, the Maternity Ward, Paediatric Emergency Unit, the Magnetic Resonance Image Centre, the oxygen plant and some wards.
Mr Bagbin commended management and staff of the hospital, especially those at the maternity unit for the good job they are doing.
He said more funds would be secured to finish all on-going projects at the health facility to enable it provide essential emergency services to consolidate its status as a centre of medical excellence.
He said government will also make every effort to construct a regional hospital and another teaching hospital at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to reduce pressure on KATH.
The Minister said quality health care delivery including emergency health care services is the number one priority of the government and to this end; the administration will this year distribute 161 ambulances to augment emergency services.
Additional 600 ambulances will be procured next year to enhance the operation of the National Ambulance Service.
Mr Bagbin appealed to Ghanaians to take family planning seriously and to also subscribe to the national health insurance scheme to help them access quality health care.
Chief Executive Officer of KATH, Professor Ohene Adjei, said a number of projects have been initiated to promote quality health care at the hospital and called for public and individual support to complete them on schedule.
GNA
