You can’t force me to open 99%-complete 160-bed hospital – Minister

The 160-bed new Upper West Regional Hospital is 99 percent complete but will not be opened until it is fully completed and staffed with trained personnel.

The resident engineer at the Hospital, Ahmed Abo Shamaa, who led an inspection team to the facility, told reporters that the project was about 99 percent complete and would be ready by the end of June 2019.

But the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin-Salih, told journalists that he will not succumb to pressure to inaugurate the over $61 million project until it is 100 percent complete.

“We will not be pushed by anybody into commissioning a hospital that is not 100 percent complete,” he said.

There had been increased agitations from sections of the public demanding the opening of the new hospital in recent times, but state officials say it would not be inaugurated for use until it was fully completed.

The health facility is stocked with state-of-the-art equipment, but the Minister said the gadgets required personnel with relevant training to operate.

He said service providers would have to be offered the necessary training before being posted to handle the sophisticated equipment.

It is anticipated that the facility would be turned into a teaching hospital and affiliated to the Wa Campus of University for Development Studies in future.

The Upper West Regional Director of Ghana Health Services, Dr. Osei Kuffour Afreh, pleaded with the residents to exercise patience over the opening of the hospital for the necessary things to be completed.

The facility features a combination of single-storey and high-rise structures spread out on a 133,000m² land area.

It is connected by disability-friendly walkways with grass growing outside the walls in between the drainage system.

It hosts 12 different clinics including paediatric, maternal health, ear, nose and throat (ENT), and dental facilities.

There are accompanying pharmaceutical department that has a storage space fitted with drug-preserving refrigerating equipment.

It also has seven different theatres with four of them on a surgical suite, two at the obstetrics and gynaecology department, and one at the emergency and casualty department.

It has an administrative block, an emergency/casualty unit, a radiology unit, a laboratory and blood bank, and a physiotherapy unit.

It also has a burns unit, an intensive care unit, a three-storey in-patient block, a mortuary facility, three structures of 20-unit staff accommodation and a parking space for 300 cars.