It's time to complete Afari Military Hospital

The recent closure of the Accident and Emergency Centre of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi brings into focus the tragedy of a national failure in the operationalisation of the Afari Military Hospital in the Ashanti Region.

The 500-bed capacity facility remains locked away and engulfed by weeds and reptiles while KATH is stretched by volumes of patients and care seekers from within the region and beyond.

I wish to draw the attention of the government, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Defence and the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council to the urgent need to complete this important facility so it could serve the people of the region and the country as a whole.

The Afari Military Hospital was a major subject of discussion during the days of the previous administration.

It is inexcusable that across eight years of that government’s life, the less than 20 per cent of remaining work could not be completed to open the hospital for use.

Thankfully, the current Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who piled pressure on the previous government to complete that hospital now has direct responsibility to ensure its operationalisation.

These days, cameras do not follow Mr Akandoh to the place he made one of his favourite sites, although we were told that physical construction was complete and installation of equipment was almost done.

It is curious that under his own watch, the hospital remains in the same state it has been before the current government took office.

The kind of resources invested into the project must not be allowed to go waste.

The new hospital can complement KATH in the Ashanti Region by taking away some of the congestion and pressure for which reason the KATH management announced the temporary closure of its emergency facility.

Fortunately, the Finance Minister, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, who holds the government purse is also the acting Defence Minister with overlapping control over the military’s infrastructure.

It is easier to deal with the situation then if the challenge is one of financial resources.

Unlike other health infrastructure under construction without dedicated budgets, this is an almost complete facility.

We must let it begin to serve its purpose before equipment start to deteriorate.