Abandoned Ofankor health centre opens next month

The abandoned health centre at Ofankor near Accra would be commissioned next month after the facility has been furnished, the Health Director at the Ga West Municipality, Dr Doris Arhin, has said.

“Although the facility has some requisite equipment to operate with, it does not have furniture for patients and the doctors who will serve them,” she explained.

Dr Arhin told the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday that the directorate was waiting for the municipal assembly to provide furniture before the hospital could be opened to the public.

“We are waiting for the Ga West Municipal Assembly to provide the furniture before we can open the health facility at Ofankor to the public, so that when patients visit, they will get chairs to sit on. We are having a meeting with the assembly today and hopefully by July the facility will be operational,” she said.

According to Dr Arhin, the Ghana Health Service was also providing the needed equipment to make the facility functional, although it was a gradual process, adding that with the 40-beds installed, the facility could still not handle very serious cases because it was under-resourced.

“With support from the municipal assembly and other corporate organisations, the health centre will soon receive new facilities while the Ghana Health Service was procuring more equipment to improve the quality of health care delivery at the centre.

“Currently, the centre has theatre tables, delivery beds, weighing scales and medications which we received from the Ministry of Health to immediately begin health care services in the community,” she added.

Dr Arhin said health professionals who would be working at the centre were ready and were waiting for the refurbishment to be completed.

She pointed out that the facility would start operations without any inaugural ceremony because the community was in dire need of the facility.

Facility

A visit to the facility confirmed that the huge facility had been abandoned with its main gate locked. The facility has a maternal ward, a theatre, a child welfare centre and an Outpatient Department (OPD). “It is expected to begin basic services such as general consultation, child welfare and deliveries”, Dr Arhin said.

Ministry responds

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Ministry of Health, Mr Robert Cudjoe, assured of the ministry’s readiness to complete the project on schedule.

He said the hospital would contribute to improve heath care delivery service in the Ofankor community and its environs.

Background

The Ofankor health centre was a component of the George Walker Bush N1 highway project. Construction works on the health facility ended a year ago, with funding from the African Development Bank, but the centre has remained shut, due to what the authorities said, was the lack of funding to fully resource it.