La General Hospital: I’m very angry at Akufo-Addo – MP

The Member of Parliament for La Dade-Kotopon Constituency, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, has expressed intense anger at President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government for demolishing the La General Hospital and not building a replacement two years down the line.

“I am very angry at the government, NPP, Nana Addo, and his Health Minister”, she chanted during a demonstration by the people of La on Tuesday, April 25 2023.

“They demolished the La General Hospital and promised the people of La Dade-Kotopon that they would reconstruct it in two years”, she said, adding: “As we speak, when you go there, nothing has happened.”

On Tuesday, August 10, 2020, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo cut the sod for the commencement of redevelopment works at the La General Hospital.

At the ceremony, the president indicated that the redevelopment project had been occasioned by a report from the Ghana Health Service, which said that the five-storey structure of the hospital had developed gaping cracks, which made the facility unfit for use.

Furthermore, the report said the unplanned nature of the entire hospital campus required that it be re-organised so that it can function efficiently as a 21st-century hospital, which will serve the needs of the residents of La and its adjoining communities.

“This facility, in so many ways, complements the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, and its upgrading will serve most people from Osu through La and Teshie, as well as residents living along the coastal corridor of Accra,” the president said at the time.

He added: “Indeed, with admissions to this hospital arising from maternal health and other related complications increasing from 20.5% in 2008 to 30% in 2017, and with pregnancy and related conditions, for the first time in the history of the life of this hospital, being the number one cause of admission, it requires that we improve, rapidly, the facilities of this hospital”.

The redevelopment project is being financed by a credit facility from Standard Chartered Bank of the United Kingdom, with an export credit guarantee from Sinosure of the People’s Republic of China to the tune of €68 million, with an insurance cover of €3,860,349.18.

The project will be 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.

Upon completion, it will be transformed into a 160-bed facility, and it will be fitted with an outpatient department; inpatient wards; maternity and neonatal services; surgical unit with four theatres; accident and emergency department; public health department; pharmacy unit; laboratory; administration; imaging area, with CT Scan, X-ray room, ultrasound, fluoroscopy, mammography units; physiotherapy unit; and a mortuary.

President Akufo-Addo assured the chiefs of the area that “this project is a sign of greater things to come for La, and, indeed, for the whole nation”, noting that the government was committed to the “total development of Ghana is absolute”, adding: “I expect that all of us gathered here, will be present again, God-willing, for the commissioning of this project, once it is completed.”