University of Allied and Health Sciences to be commissioned

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwah, Deputy Minister of Education, has noted that the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho in the Volta Region, has been completed and ready to be commissioned by President John Dramani Mahama.

“This means that the new University, with the state-of-the-art facilities would have enough space to admit more Medical students which has been the country’s bane in the past years,” he added.

He said Ghana had not been able to meet the UN standard for medical practitioners’ population ratio, and described the completion of the University as a strategic intervention for the growing population and the medical needs.

The Deputy Minister said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra at a programme christened: “Monday Groove” in honour of the late Professor Evans Atta Mills, former President of the country.

The event, organized by the Freedom Centre, a socialist forum, was spearheaded by Mr Kwasi Pratt Junior, Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper, which featured dazzling and scintillating poetry and music by reggae musicians.

Mr Ablakwah reiterated that the new University was initiated by the late President Mills, and that the ceremony was in the right direction, to pay tribute and honour the legacy of the works of the astute leader.

He said government had met with eight Cuban doctors and had accepted to come and train medical students at the University, stressing that the edifice meant that, a critical sector like the medical and health sector would have a facelift.

Mr Ablakwah noted: “It is only the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, the University of Ghana, the University of Development Studies and the Cape Coast University that trained medical practitioners which is woefully inadequate for the country’s growing population”.

He emphasized that work on the satellite campus in Hohoe in the Volta Region for the Midwifery School was progressing steadily, and was expected to be completed in 2016.

The Deputy Minister disclosed that government was exploring a campus for the School of Pharmacy in the Southern Volta in the Anlo constituency.

Mr Ablakwah said he was recommended with Dr Edward Omane Boama, Minister of Communications, to the late Prof Mills in 2006, to help mobilize the youth in the country as part of the National Democratic Congress campaign.

He added that the humility with which the late Prof Mills received them was awesome, and that he is described as embodiment for peace, unity and integrity.

Mr Pratt described the late Prof Mills as a simple personality with good sense of humour, who had respect for all without discrimination, to the extent that commercial drivers and some members of the public had his personal cell phones and communicated with hím.