Ghanaians witnessed the commissioning of without doubt the most significant endeavour in the provision of Health infrastructure the country has ever seen.
The “Agenda 111” Hospitals, officially named Ghana Priority Health Infrastructure Projects, to many doubters, could have only been a pipe dream. The nature and time of conception of this super ambitious idea meant that it would find fertile space in the mind and at best on the smartly bound A4 papers on the shelf somewhere, gathering dust and for a long time, forgotten.
Surprisingly, it has not been long coming. Duplicitous accounts of it by the President, in a marked acknowledgment of a genius who is now top of the chart of the long line of protégés, spread across all sectors of Ghana and beyond, that the man Akufo-Addo has nurtured and gifted magnanimously, to our world.
The President puts its more tacitly. “Dr. Bawumia has unimpeded access to my office. That is how we have lived and worked as candidate and running mate and as President and Vice President, these past sixteen years. As a matter of fact, it has been like this, since the time when I served as a leading figure in the frontlines of our political and governance architecture, and him, a promising razor-sharp economist of the Central Bank. It was therefore of little surprise to all that he rose, with speed, to the position of Deputy-Governor in record time.
On President Akufo-Addo’s account, it was on one of those frequent visits; and unlike what others will have us think of Ghanaians as people with short memories he remembers vividly. “When Vice President Bawumia entered my office, he had a facemask on, yet his creased brow was enough to tell, that as always, he has come bearing an important matter of concern.”
Dr Bawumia, indeed, had a serious cause to be concerned. It was at the height of the COVID pandemic. Inflows from certain key sources such as Synohydro which he oversees stood on thin ice. China was closing shop. Temporarily.
However, he was resolute. What’s the point of a growing economy, when the people who stand to benefit from it are dead? Livelihood was key. Lives mattered most. He had a favourite sitting posturing in my office. He will not sit. Not today.
“Mr President”, his familiar voice, courted my instant attention. Researchers at my office, when looking into our preparedness for the pandemic have realized that over 88 districts had no access to direct healthcare because there were no district hospitals,” he said.
From behind his desk, President Akufo-Addo got up almost immediately. Cold sweats forming on his smooth scalp and forehead, he took off his iconic glasses. “Oh blimey!” You don’t say. He muttered and begun rummaging through contacts on his phone.
Nsiah Asare, the Presidential Advisor on Health and former CEO of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital entered the President’s office upon the distress call and was asked to look deeper.
In three days, he came bearing a worse report with sickening details that put the actual figure of districts without hospitals at 101. Aside these, government needed to replace the colonial Effia-Nkwanta Hospital, plus one Psychiatric hospital each for the Northern, Middle and Southern belts of the country, as well as new regional Hospitals for each of the six new regions. Hence “Agenda 111.”
Three years on, since President Akufo-Addo cut the sod on August 7th, 2021, for work to begin, he was at that hallowed ground at Trede, in the Atwima Kwanwoma District to commission the completion of this historic life-saving project. Two others were also commissioned at Kokoben in Oforikrom Municipality of the Ashanti region and Bokro, in the Ahanta West District of the Western region.
Throughout the commencement of this project, over 12,000 job opportunities for technical staff and construction workers have been provided and it is expected that approximately 33,909 doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals will be employed when all of it becomes operational.
The imposing hospital is a modern 100 bed Standard Hospital and built and equipped at a cost of $16.9M. A significant effective value-for-money project.
It stands as a celebration of tropical architecture with wide roof overhangs, louvred windows allowing for cross ventilation, courtyards and green spaces for patient convalescence and streamlined patient and staff circulation.
Facilities at the hospital include an Out-Patients Department, An administration and Public Health Departments, laboratory, dental, physiotherapy, ophthalmology, diagnostics, 3-well- equipped theatres with four beds, intensive care unit, twenty-bed Female ward, twenty-bed male ward, 24-bed pediatric wards, twenty-bed maternity ward, five-bed accident and emergency ward and ten-bed isolation Wards, kitchen, laundry, CSSD, maintenance facilities and a mortuary and much needed staff accommodation.
There cannot be a better example for the age-hold maxim of looking at the brighter side of things. However, top notch leadership is required to effectively navigate the transition of this saying from words to actions.
For President Akufo-Addo and Vice President Bawumia, the gallant fight against the pandemic’s ruthless onslaught in other countries did not only stop with the global acclaim we all heard and saw. It has produced a never-seen-before counter-offensive in 111 hospitals with far-reaching results of providing needed access to top of the range healthcare that was once upon a time, only an unimaginable dream.
