Kwaku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, has called on President Akufo-Addo to deal with the issues surrounding the yet-to-be-opened University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC).
According to Kwaku Baako, clarification given by the Ministry of Health on the cause of delay in opening the facility for use, is not convincing.
The UGMC has been completed but it remains shut till date.
Speaking on the matter on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on Thursday, 31 May, Kweku Baako said: “I think the president should intervene. The government is his and ours, so, the delay in opening it is not good.
“In terms of public debate, the ministry and for that matter the government is losing the debate. The delay is too protracted, the arguments and counter-arguments from the government side are not convincing and he ought to do something about it.â€
A few weeks ago, some Ghanaians signed an online petition as part of a social media campaign to push the government to operationalize the 597-bed capacity UGMC.
The campaign was led by Reginald who argued that the hospital cannot continue to be ‘worshipped’ when the country’s health system is saddled among other challenges with only 55- functioning ambulances.
511 days after former President John Mahama commissioned the first phase of the UGMC, the government is yet to open the facility to the public, citing technical reasons.
According to reports, the facility which was scheduled to be opened in November 2017, was kept locked to the public due to a tussle between the Minister of Health and the University of Ghana over who manages the $217 million facility.
After stating various reasons why the facility remains locked with all deadlines for operationalising the facility expired, the UGMC is yet to be opened.
The last public comment about the state of the hospital was by the Minister of Health, Kweku Agyemang Manu in April.
While addressing stakeholders and practitioners in health during the 2018 Health Summit in Accra, he said the UGMC could not be opened due to uncertainties over the power supply.
“You cannot run MRI and imaging equipment on the national grid, the back-up generator is not there yet, so should we operationalise and spoil the equipment?†he said.
It is unclear if the Minister was referring to a dedicated sub-station in that address as there are already two large standby generators installed at the hospital.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister in insisting that the ultra-modern medical facility is not completed said, “And those who claim the place is completed, I am the Minister, and I want to tell the Ghanaian population that the place is not completed.â€
But the campaigners for the facility argued that the government could get the facility running if it prioritised it.