Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, has denied claims that the Akufo-Addo administration has abandoned health projects handed over to it by the previous administration.
“Government, after assuming office on the 7th of January 2017, has never abandoned any health facility that was started by the previous government. I have to re-emphasize that the government has never abandoned any health facility that was started before we assumed office,” he said.
Speaking at a press briefing yesterday in Accra, Mr Agyeman Manu said most of the hospital projects the NDC had claimed were abandoned were actually completed and commissioned, either by himself or President Akufo-Addo.
Recounting the government’s efforts in the health sector, the Minister cited the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the Ga East Hospital as two of the main hospitals which have been operationalised by the Akufo-Addo government.
He also pointed out that “10 polyclinics in Central Region and the major rehabilitation of Tamale Teaching Hospital and the Ga East Hospital, among others, have all been completed and commissioned.”
Upcoming projects
Commenting on the President’s announcement that 88 district hospitals are to be constructed, the Health Minister noted that his outfit had already laid in motion plans for the construction of some 22 of the projects before the President’s announcement last Sunday.
According to Mr Agyemang Manu, the President did not make the promise to construct the new district hospitals out of a vacuum, but from a carefully laid out plan.
The government has received a lot of backlash, especially from the opposition National Democratic Congress, which has vehemently queried the feasibility of the project, especially when it believes that funding for the construction of the new district hospitals was not captured in the 2020 budget statement.
Source: Daily Statesman
