Hospital
Accra, Jan. 24, GNA- President John Agyekum Kufuor, on Saturday inaugurated modern facilities for 13 Departments of the 37 Military Hospital and pledged the Government's commitment to upgrade all health institutions to provide Ghanaians with high quality and affordable health care.
President Kufuor said the sterling quality of work and the state-of-the-art equipment, which had raised the status of the hospital to an international standard, would be the yardstick for measuring the development in similar health infrastructure throughout the country.
The 20-million dollar facilities, constructed under the second phase of the 37 Military Hospital Rehabilitation Project, included a Polyclinic, Ear Nose and Throat (ENT), Medical, Surgical, Paediatric, Ophthalmology, Dental, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Pathology, Pharmacy, Public Health and Physiotherapy Departments. Others are 32 offices for consultants, restrooms for doctors and staff, cafeteria and a shopping mall.
The German Government provided support for the project, undertaken by Messrs Hospital Engineering Limited. It was initiated at the end of July 2002.
President Kufuor commended the establishment of a Maintenance Unit to sustain the facilities and the installation of a Health Information System, which facilitates data compilation and retrieval and urged other health institutions to adopt the system.
Additionally, President Kufuor remarked: "Attention has been paid to the needs of the physically challenged with special services. I recommend this highly to policy makers and implementers in all sectors of society to remember to give equal opportunity to the physically-challenged members of the society."
President Kufuor tasked the staff of the hospital to improve upon their output to justify the huge investments made.
"Without the right attitude and commitment on the part of staff, the benefits of this enormous investment to society will not be realised..." he cautioned." "The people of Ghana expect and indeed deserve a standard of service commensurate with the investment made in this hospital." Defence Minister Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, assured the staff of improved remuneration to boost their morale.
He announced that the Government had initiated discussions with Germany to assist Ghanaian specialists and consultants practising there to return home and train their counterparts at the Hospital.
"The intention is to make the Military Hospital, the staging post for returning Ghanaian specialists and consultants to offer their services through the clinical departments as well as lectures at the Post Graduate Medical College and the conduct of research," he explained.
Dr Addo Kufuor noted with satisfaction that the Hospital offered services to many civilians, saying, "over 70 per cent of patients treated are civilians and 1,250 out of its 1,704 workers are civilians".
He announced that the process to initiate third phase of the rehabilitation project had started.
The third phase will include a 120-bed capacity children's ward, a 150-bed capacity maternity block and a modern National accident and Emergency Unit.
Dr Addo Kufuor said on completion, the hospital was expected to become one of the best medical institutions in West Africa as well as a centre of excellence in order that medical conditions that had to be referred to specialist hospitals outside could be performed in Ghana. Brigadier-General Daniel Twum, Director of Medical Services of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF), commended the Government for the investment and expressed the hope that the planned improvement of the service conditions of health workers would soon materialise to check the brain drain.
The first phase of the rehabilitation project undertaken by the previous Government, was also funded with a German grant of 18 million dollars.
It included the rehabilitation of the Mortuary, Radiology Department, construction of wards for officers and other ranks, the women's ward and the medical reception centre.
The British Government built the Hospital during the Second World War to provide definitive and rehabilitative medical care to its troops. It has, however, been upgraded significantly over the years to make it a valuable national asset.
