The Coalition of La Associations has called on the government to relinquish control of the La General Hospital land and allow them to build the hospital.
In an interview on Citi FM, Jeffery Tetteh, the Coalition’s spokesperson, accused the Minister of Health of inconsistency regarding the hospital’s construction.
He stated that his group has repeatedly written to the Health Minister regarding the hospital’s commencement but has been misled on multiple occasions.
Mr. Tetteh emphasized that, it is time to inform the public about the Minister and the government’s lack of interest in rebuilding the hospital.
“Last year, my group came before the Minister of Health after we had written several letters to him and so we went to his office and we were told that the financier of the hospital had gone bankrupt. So I can tell you on authority that the minister and the government lied to the people of La and I think we will have to come out and explain to the public what has happened.”
“All we want the government to do is to take its hands off the land and let us build our own hospital because the government has failed us and the biggest failure is the Greater Accra Regional Minister,” he said.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has attributed the delay in the reconstruction of the hospital to a hold-up in funds by the facility’s sponsors.
According to him, the sponsors had halted funding following Ghana’s engagement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Responding to questions from La Dade-Kotopon MP, Rita Odoley Sowah on the floor of Parliament he explained that “until the nation is given a clean bill of health by the IMF, it is going to be difficult for the funding to be released.”
Madam Sowah then said if nothing is done about the situation, authorities and residents in La and its environs will be forced to occupy the Finance and Health Ministries or put pressure the government to relinquish control of the hospital land to allow them build the hospital.
Since the demolition of the health facility in July 2020 and a sod-cutting ceremony by President Nana Akufo-Addo in the same year, the land remains bare.
Residents have said government’s failure to build the ultramodern hospital has caused needless deaths.
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