The government has announced construction of hospitals in some 88 districts across the country will begin in two months.
This is the first time a timeline for the commencement of work on the standard 100-bed facilities, which will be in districts without hospitals, has been given.
Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who announced this, said, “the physical infrastructure will be there by the next two months all going well, the 88 hospitals will all start across the country.”
Dr Bawumia said:Â “We will all physically see them rise by the grace of God before the end of the year we would have made some significant progress at least I’m hoping we can roof all of them by the end of the year before we move.”
If successfully executed, that infrastructure, according to the Vice President, will be the largest investment in the country’s healthcare sector in at least the last 50 years.
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But as important as physical infrastructure is in the scheme of delivering healthcare to the people, it will be meaningless if there are no health professionals to man and deliver services to clients who visit those facilities.
The Vice President said the administration, in fulfillment of a promise to deliver universal health coverage, is demonstrating its commitment by absorbing tuition fees for Postgraduate Medical Doctors.
He said this at the launch of a government scholarship scheme to absorb fees for Postgraduate Medical Doctors at the Jubilee House, Thursday.
With 85% of practicing doctors operating in Accra and Kumasi alone, Dr Bawumia said that underscores the need for Ghana to not just train, but retain more doctors in a bid to meet the World Health Organisation standard of doctor to patient ratio.