Parliament approves loan agreement for construction of hospitals

Parliament has approved a loan agreement of €56.2 million to finance the construction of modern trauma hospitals in Obuasi in the Ashanti Region and Anyinam in the Eastern Region.

The facility will also be used to construct an accident and emergency centre at the Enyiresi Government Hospital, also in the Eastern Region, and a rehabilitation centre at the Obuasi Health Centre.

The loan agreement is between the Government of Ghana and Deutsche Bank AG Ag, as the arranger and original lender of the facility, and TM Global Services (UK) Limited, as the facility arranger.

The projects, which are expected to be completed within three years after commencement, form part of the approved list of priority projects for implementation in 2020, as captured in this year’s budget and economic policy of the government.

The agreement was presented to the House on July 1, 2020 by a Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Charles Adu Boahene, on behalf of the Minister of Finance, and referred to the Finance Committee of the House for consideration and report.

Trauma hospitals

Presenting the report for adoption by the House, the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, said under the project, the Obuasi and the Anyinam Trauma hospitals would have accident and emergency and main theatres and public health and physiotherapy departments.

Other facilities are a pharmacy unit, laboratories, an administration block, support facilities, maternity and pathology units.

He said both the Enyiresi Government Hospital and the Obuasi Government Hospital would be remodelled and retooled.

Necessity

According to the New Juaben South MP, both Obuasi and Anyinam did not have any major government hospital.

He said while the existing Obuasi Health Centre was ill-equipped and inadequate to meet the health needs of the burgeoning population in the catchment area, the Enyiresi Hospital did not have a modern accident and emergency centre, even though it was strategically located along the Accra-Kumasi highway.

“This project will also provide the enabling environment to attract the needed healthcare professionals to the respective facilities,” he added.

He expressed concern over the lack of beds in hospitals and, therefore, recommended that designs of new hospitals should include expanded emergency units to minimise and ultimately eliminate the “no-bed syndrome”.

Dr Assibey-Yeboah further explained that the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) portion of the agreement was negotiated between the Government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Health (MoH), and Universal Hospitals Group Limited.

“The EPC contract is subject to the conclusion of a value-for-money audit,” he said, and recommended that the MoH take steps to formally present the EPC to the House for referral to the appropriate committee for consideration and report.