Plans to enhance health sector commendable

In his last address to the nation on the spread of COVID-19 in the country, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pledged the resolve of his government to build an additional 88 district hospitals within a year in the quest to augment the number of health facilities in the country.

He premised his pledge on the fact that the outbreak of the disease had exposed Ghana’s healthcare system and questioned our preparedness as a people to deal with major outbreaks of diseases when they struck.

The world over, the COVID-19 pandemic has taught many countries a major lesson, to the extent that most, if not all, have realised the need to invest taxpayers’ money in healthcare facilities, instead of spending billions of dollars on building armies and providing them with the most sophisticated equipment when there is no war.

Many healthcare facilities around the globe are so full that governments have no option but to use hotel and stadiums as make-shift hospitals just to care for the sick.

There is no doubt that building 88 hospitals within a year is ambitious, but it is never impossible.

Much as the Daily Graphic will be the first to admit that the country’s finances are challenged to support such a laudable endeavour, we strongly believe that it is necessary for us all to be committed to and optimistic about the project and the promise made by the President.

This is the time to support his effort to get all hands on deck, whether we are corporate institutions, philanthropists or well-wishers, in whatever way possible to make the pledge a reality.

As a country, what we should realise is that the districts and towns that the President listed as beneficiaries of the hospital facilities may be areas where some of our relatives reside, either permanently or temporarily.

Since his announcement of the construction of the facilities, we have heard various views expressed, and we do not begrudge those who are expressing their opinions on the matter.

However, we are concerned about those skeptics who think that an ambitious plan cannot be achieved just because the proponents do not have money. If for nothing at all, we believe in the adage: “Dream Big”.

There is a saying that to think only the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best is a major trait of a true leader.

A famous writer, Helen Keller, said: “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars or sailed to an uncharted land or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”

On the flip side, Noam Chomsky, the linguist, also said: “Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”

We at the Daily Graphic believe in the words of the President and would want to call on all and sundry to support that endeavour to make it happen. After all, if it happens, it is Mother Ghana and her people that gain.

Today, it is COVID-19; tomorrow it may be something wilder and more brutal than that (God forbid!). Against this background, there is the need to prepare ourselves to first battle the invisible enemy confronting us today, while we position ourselves for any other eventuality in the future.

While at it, we would like to use this opportunity to advise the government not to overlook the other hospital projects which are yet to be completed.