Insurance cover of financial arrangement delays La Hospital project

Health Minister Kwaku Agyeman-Manu Tuesday informed Parliament that delays by Sinosure, the guarantor to the reconstruction of the La General Hospital, to issue the insurance cover of the financial arrangements has stalled the project.

Other causes of the delay was the need to do an intrusive geological exploration to avoid structural problems, which affected the old building, leading to its demolition.

The Minister was responding to a question by Ms Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, the Member of Parliament for La Dadekoton, who asked when the actual construction work on the La General Hospital would begin.

He said some aspects of the project such as demolishing, hoarding, topographical surveying, design and other preliminary activities had commenced.

“And the comforting news is that, once the physical construction starts with all the right drawings and studies that are currently ongoing, there will be no breaks until completion,” he said.

Mr Agyeman-Manu promised to update the House on further developments of the project.

The project, Turnkey (or turn-key), is being undertaken by the Chinese company, Poly Changda, which has wide-ranging experience in China and other parts of Africa in the construction of healthcare facilities.

A Turnkey project refers to a construction for which the developer undertakes the whole responsibility from design to completion so that the building is available to the buyer in a ready-to-use condition.

The 160-bed ultra-modern facility is being funded with a 68 million Euro credit facility sourced from the Standard Charted Bank of the United Kingdom.

The hospital, upon completion, will complement the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, and serve most people from Osu through La and Teshie, as well as residents living along the coastal corridor of Accra.

It will have an OPD, wards, maternity and neonatal units, surgical unit with four theatres; accident and emergency department; public health department; pharmacy laboratory, administration, and imaging area.

Others are CT Scan, X-ray room, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, mammography units; physiotherapy unit; and a mortuary.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in August 2020 broke the ground for the redevelopment of the health facility.

In a related development, when Mr Yusif Sulemana, the MP for Bole Bamboi, asked the Minister when the completed Bamboi Polyclinic would be commissioned, Mr Agyeman-Manu said a technical team “is currently undertaking testing and the commissioning process.”

“Beyond this, staff allocated for these facilities will be trained.”

He gave the assurance that the facility would operationalise by the end of July when all the training would have been completed.