KATH appeals to government to complete the hospital’s projects to ease congestion
An appeal has been made by the Management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to the government to as a matter of urgency complete the ongoing hospital projects to decongest the facility to boost healthcare delivery.
KATH’s management explained that as it stands now, the facility has overflowed its capacity of 1,200 to over 2,500, a situation they say has created congestion and affected quality healthcare delivery.
Head of Public Affairs at KATH, Kwame Frimpong, bemoaned that, the surging nature of the hospital has forced management to convert the facility’s reception into a ward.
Mr Frimpong said that “a cubicle that is supposed to take only 12 patients is now hosting over 52 and the situation is spread across almost all the wards in the hospital because we receive referrals from all the remaining regions within the middle and northern belt and even Burkina Faso. So we have indeed overstretched our capacity to save lives. So it is about time government completed all the ongoing peripheral hospital projects to ease us from this congested situation we are faced with”.
The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital facility that was built in 1955 is yet to see any significant infrastructural boost after former president John Agyakum Kufuor built the Accident and Emergency Center, though the 500-bed capacity MBU is steadily ongoing.
The Ghana Health Service explains that Ashanti Region is the less endowed region in terms of health facilities, a region which until the recent population census, was the most populous in the country.
However, there are over six-hospital projects in the region which were started by previous governments and have missed deadlines for almost five to ten years for obvious reasons.
Emphasizing the Afari Military Hospital which if finally completed will house over 500 patients, also a 250-bed capacity regional hospital at Sawuah which is supposed to have been completed in 2017 is yet to see daylight, a 120-bed capacity at Fomena and Kumawu which have missed deadlines and six new 40-bed capacity hospitals for which sods were cut ahead of the 2020 elections for the people of Sabronum, Manso Nkwanta, Twedie, Suame and Drobonso.
