President Nana Addo has admitted whiles proffering solutions, the deficiencies in the country’s healthcare system being exposed by the COVID 19 pandemic.
The President in his eight sessional update on COVID 19, noted that the pandemic has unearthed the inequalities in the spread of health infrastructure in the country, whiles further disrupting lives and society.
“Just as the virus has destroyed our daily lives, its has also exposed the deficiencies in our healthcare systems because of years of under-investment and neglect.
“The virus has also revealed the unequal distribution of health facilities, as we have tended to focus our infrastructure on Accra and one or two of our other cities. But as we’ve seen epidemics and pandemics when they merge can spread to any part of our country” he said.
President Nana Addo stressed the need for government to urgently consider investing hugely in the country’s health infrastructure, to deal with the deficiencies.
He remarked that this “will be the largest in our history”.
“We shall make these investments in our healthcare systems not because its going to be easy but because it is self-evidently necessary to serve the needs of 21 Century Ghana” he said.
88 new district , 6 new regional hospitals to be constructed
As part of government’s response to addressing the growing deficiencies and uneven spread of health infrastructure in the country, 88 new district hospitals will be constructed within a year.
The Ashanti Region will have 10 of these district hospitals, Volta 9, Central 9, Eastern 8, Greater Accra 7, Upper East 7, Northern 5, Oti 5, Upper West 5, Bono 5, Western 4, Western North 4, Ahafo 3, Savanna 3, Bono East 2, and North East 2
“Each of them, will be a quality, standard-designed 100 bed hospital with accommodation for doctors, nurses and other health workers. And the intention is to complete them within a year” President Nana Addo noted.
Additionally, six new regional hospitals will be constructed in the six new regions.
He mentioned that; “we’ve also put in place plans for the construction of six new regional hospitals, and the rehabilitation of the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi, which is the regional hospital for the Western Region”
“We do not have Infectious Disease Control Centers dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centers for diseases like COVID 19. We must do something urgently about this” he added.