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The Ghana Medical Association says it fully supports President Akufo-Addo’s decision to build new hospitals in all districts and regions that lack health facilities.
This follows a government announcement that plans have been put in place to ensure that some 88 districts in the country and the six newly created regions get health services within a year.
“88 districts without hospitals is not something we shouldn’t worry about. So as we try to fix the ones that are ongoing, we should also start thinking about them.
“Imagine that these 88 districts are experiencing an outbreak of any type of infectious disease and have nowhere to manage them, how are we going to move forward?” Said Secretary General of the Ghana Medical Association, Dr. Justice Yankson at JoyNews Archive of news, Saturday.
In addition to the new facilities, President Akufo-Addo said, the government will also strengthen existing laboratories and establish new ones in all regions for testing.
He also indicated that three infectious disease control centers will also be established for each of the areas of our country, that is, coastal, middle and north, with the general objective of establishing a Ghana Center for Disease Control.
But the announcement received massive rejection and backlash from Ghanaians who insist that the money budgeted for the project must be spent on completing the abandoned health facilities started by the old Mahama administration.
While the Minority in Parliament argues that it will be impossible for the government to carry out such an ambitious project as Ghana has extended its budget to 2020 and beyond due to the pandemic, NDC opposition champion, John Dramani Mahama has called on the President Akufo-Addo refrain from what he described as instinctive promises in his approach to find solutions to the country’s problems.
But the Ghana Medical Association says the president’s promises are a step in the right direction.
According to Dr. Yankson, it is only fair that work on new hospitals in each district begins while the government is tasked with completing the old or abandoned ones.
“As the GMA has always said, these health facilities that have been left must be completed for the common good of Ghanaians.
“And it is clear that some activities are happening when it comes to completing old projects, perhaps the problem is with the speed at which this is being done.
“But 88 districts without hospitals is a large number compared to the number of facilities that have not yet been completed.
“Therefore, we cannot ignore them, especially in a country that has a policy that each district must have a hospital. The topic of an infectious disease center is one that, as a country, we have paid for a long time, so if at this point, Covid-19 has exposed many deficiencies in our health system and the state through the President has taken the decision to build these infectious disease centers for us; (then) as the Ghana Medical Association, we stand behind it.
“We have always asked for this,” said Dr. Yankson.
