Agenda 111: Akufo-Addo “Ready” To Commission Hospitals Before Exit In 2025

The President of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated his government’s intention to complete and commission all the 111 health facilities under “Agenda 111” before his tenure ends in January 2025.

Speaking at the 25th anniversary of the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR) at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), President Akufo-Addo admitted the aim was ambitious.

The one hundred and eleven health facilities include standard 100-bed district hospitals for one hundred and one (101) districts without hospitals, six (6) new regional hospitals for each of the six (6) new regions, the rehabilitation of the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital in the Western Region, one (1) new regional hospital for the Western Region, and three (3) psychiatric hospitals for each of the three (3) zones in Ghana.

While cutting sod for the project in August 2021, President Akufo-Addo said they will be completed in 18 months but a u-turn was taken on that projection later.

Earlier in March 2022, he said that work was already in force on 87 of them with assurances that preliminary work on the remaining twenty-four (24) sites was ongoing.

“I have to report that, like all major construction projects, it is evident that the initial schedule we gave for the completion of Agenda 111 was overly ambitious. Identifying suitable sites around the country, for example, has turned out to be even more problematic than had been anticipated,” he said.

Speaking on behalf of the President during the 25th anniversary of KCCR, Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare reiterated that the projects will be completed by 2025.

“It is an ambitious project which must and will be done since we do not know when to expect the next pandemic. President Akufo-Addo is prepared to commission all these 111 hospitals before he leaves power on the midnight of 6th of January 2025”.

He said this while he recollected the country’s first case of covid-19 which was recorded in March 2020.

“We and the rest of the world were in uncharted territory. Fear and sheer terror grip our land. Probably to future generations it will look quite obvious what should have been done but two years ago we felt so inadequate. We could not have been prepared for the catastrophe that hit us.”

He noted that the aim to construct 111 health facilities; domestic vaccine development and production; and investment in science and research was born when the vulnerability of the country’s health system was exposed by the pandemic.

“We had to learn some very hard lessons and our belief in the need for self-sufficiency was reinforced during vaccine distribution”.

“The Presidential Vaccine manufacturing committee which was set up by his Excellency President to respond to this deficiency has put in place a comprehensive strategy for domestic vaccine development and production in the third quarter of 2024. A bill as I speak now is in Parliament for approval and we are hopeful that within the next few weeks or so, the establishment of a National Vaccine Institute, which a building is ready and furnished, will then start the production of vaccines locally in this country”, he said.

He recalled, “right from the onset, KCCR scientists worked together with their brothers in Noguchi Memorial Institute to ensure that Covid-19 PCR testing was available to health facilities and provided technical support for expanding testing capacity to private and public health institutions. Now we have over 50 such facilities across the country both public and private.

“On the 25th anniversary, we will commission the KCCR new outbreak Preparedness Block born out of COVID-19 distress and in anticipation of future public outbreaks. It has a larger Biosafety Level 3 laboratory for processing dangerous organisms such as those causing COVID-19. The building is resourced with Biosafety level 2 laboratories to ensure fast processing samples and to provide space for training of our next generation of scientists.”

The President during his regional tour this year said projects under the Agenda 111 policy were at various stages of completion.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini