According to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, plans have been outlined by the government to build 94 hospitals across the 16 regions of Ghana.
Expected to be completed within a year, the health project comprises 88 district hospitals and six regional hospitals.
The announcement was made by President Akufo-Addo when he announced that the COVID-19 pandemic has infected 1,550 in total with 155 recoveries and 11 deaths.
According to the only Independent Presidential Candidate in the 2016 general election, Jacob Osei Yeboah, affectionately called JOY, the promise of 94 hospitals almost gave him the deadly novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
“Building unplanned 88 district hospitals in 2020 is like fool’s paradise promise when roads promised in 2020 cannot be fulfilled,” JOY said on an Accra-based radio station.
JOY added that: “Kwame, I almost got the coronavirus listening to the President yesterday when he promised to build the 88 district hospitals this year. Remember the first quarter of the year is gone, April is ending, and he only has eight months to build the said hospitals. Where is he going to get the money from? Meanwhile, he has already promised 2020 is going to be a year of roads, show us the number of roads he has so far constructed.”
In his eighth address to the nation on measures being undertaken by the government to contain the fast-spreading coronavirus infection, President Akufo-Addo, said:
“There are 88 districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have five infectious disease control centres dotted across the country; and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing eighty-eight (88) hospitals in the districts without hospitals,” the President said.
He added that: “It will mean (10) in Ashanti, nine (9) in Volta, nine (9) in Central, eight (8) in Eastern, seven (7) in Greater Accra, seven (7) in Upper East, five (5) in Northern, five (5) in Oti, five (5) in Upper West, five (5) in Bono, four (4) in Western North, four (4) in Western, three (3) in Ahafo, three (3) in Savannah, two (2) in Bono East, and two (2) in North East Regions.”
