The Medical fraternity has expressed doubts about the government’s ambition to complete 111 district and regional hospitals within a year.
On Tuesday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is expected in the Ashanti region to cut sod for the commencement of the agenda 111 project.
The hospital projects include 101 district hospitals, seven regional hospitals, and two specialized mental health hospitals across the country to be completed within 12 months of commencement of each facility.
The Information Minister Kwadwo Oppong Nkrumah at a press briefing over the weekend disclosed land acquisition and documentation is completed for at least 88 sites.
Far from the anticipated welcome from medics and CSOs in the medical fraternity, there is skepticism about the prospects of the capital-intensive project.
Speaking with GHone News ahead of Tuesday’s sod-cutting at Atwima Nwabiagya district of the Ashanti Region, the Ashanti regional president of the Ghana Medical Association Dr. Paa Kwesi Baidoo said, he will applaud the president if he is able to complete the project in two years.
He said the president can’t be taken seriously after failing to walk the earlier promise of building 88 hospitals in a year.
“We were here last year, we were promised 88 hospitals within a year and we all know what happened and it is being explained that he said when it is started but that wasn’t it, we all heard what he said.
“As a doctor and a labor leader, until I see the actualization of this project, I mean until I see I see the completion of these projects…until all these things are done I cannot sing the praises,” Dr. Kwesi Baidoo told Ultimate FM’s Isaac Bediako Justice.
