Audio: “44-Year-Old KATH Maternity And Children’s Block To Be Demolished And Rebuilt- Reg. Minister Announces

“44-Year-Old KATH Maternity And Children’s Block To Be Demolished And Rebuilt- Reg. Minister Announces

Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon Simon Osei Mensah has disclosed that, the whole structure of the 44-year- old abandoned Mother and Baby Unit at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi would be demolished due to weakness in strength.

In an exclusive interview with Oheneba Nana Asiedu on Wontumi Radio/TV  monitored by MyGhanaMedia , he said that, the contractor used six months to assess the strength of the block and noticed that, it can cause catastrophe in the near future.

Hon. Osei Mensah, indicated that to avert a future calamity, the contractor and the consultant for the project have appealed to the government to demolish and rebuild it.

Listen to the audio below  for further details  ( Hon Simon Osei Mensah voice in Twi Language)

Background Of  KATH Maternity And Children’s Block

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, 15th May, 2020, cut the sod for the reactivation of work for the construction of the forty-four (44) year old Maternity and Children’s Block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

The project, which is being funded by German Bank, Deutsche Bank, will cost €155 million, and is expected to be completed within 36 months, with the construction being undertaken by Contracta. 

Once completed, President Akufo-Addo stated that the Maternity and Children’s Block will be a state-of-the-art, modern health edifice, with paediatrics, gynaecology and obstetrics units.

“It will serve as a referral centre for twelve (12) of the sixteen (16) regions of our country. It will be a seven hundred and fifty (750)-bed building, with outpatient areas for adults and children, and it will have ten (10) operating theatres and diagnostic rooms, fully equipped with X-Ray, ultrasound, and mammography facilities,” he said.

The President continued, “It will house an intensive care unit, a high dependency unit, isolation rooms and student lecture halls, with the capacity to provide catering services for staff, patients and students”.

Recounting the sequence of events leading up to the reactivation of construction work of the Block, President Akufo-Addo noted that, in 2017, his first year as President of the Republic, he paid a 3-day working visit to the Ashanti Region, where his itinerary took him to the abandoned Maternity and Children’s Block.

He was made to understand, at the time, that this project had begun in 1976, as part of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital Expansion Project, but came to a standstill in 1979. It was reactivated in 1999, under the administration of the 1st President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency Jerry John Rawlings, but again stalled shortly afterwards.

In 2004, the administration of the 2nd President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor, took it up, but, soon after his departure from office in January 2009, work on this project was discontinued, until the assumption of office of another NPP administration, the Akufo-Addo government, in 2017.

“In my remarks, after the visit to this project site, I pledged that Government would undertake a comprehensive assessment of the situation, and would ensure that the necessary funds would be secured for the completion of this important piece of health infrastructure,” he said.

This led to the approval by Parliament, in 2019, of a €155 million loan to finish and equip the Maternity and Children’s Block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, with the President reiterating his delight at being able to “cut the sod for work to begin finally to complete this ultramodern Maternity and Children Block – a project which is to be carried out within thirty-six (36) months, and whose funding has been fully secured.”

As co-Chair of the Group of Eminent Advocates for the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, he stated that finalisation of the project is very dear to his heart, as it will have a positive impact the country’s drive towards achieving the SDG targets under maternal and child health.

The President reinforced the commitment of Government to providing access to healthcare to every Ghanaian, no matter where they are.

Source:  Mensah Francis – MyGhanaMedia.com