Veep Lauds UG Teaching Hospital Project

Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur (2nd right) and other dignitaries on the tour of the project

Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah-Arthur has lauded the progress of work on the first phase of the 650-bed University of Ghana Teaching Hospital (UGTH) being put up at the cost of $217 million.

He described the hospital as unique, saying government will in the near future put up a similar facility to serve the northern sector of the country.

The vice president made the remarks when he paid a working visit to the project site and was taken round by the project coordinator, Prof Aaron Lawson, accompanied by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Prof Ebenezer Owusu-Oduro.

According to the vice president, “Government has also secured 48 million dollars to begin the second phase of the project which has a 400-bed capacity and as part of the project, a number of Ghanaian health professionals have undergone a short-term hands-on training at the Sheba Medical Centre in Israel.”

He stressed that these professionals are expected to constitute a critical mass of staff to be engaged when the hospital moves into full operation.

Prof Lawson, on his part, said more than two thousand people would be engaged to work in the facility when the second phase is completed.

He observed that the UGTH project was a dream come true because it has been on the drawing board for decades before the late President Prof John Evans Atta Mills finally cut the sod on March 12, 2011.

The main contractor for the project is Messrs Engineering & Development Consultants Limited of Israel, with Sheba Medical Centre, also in Israel, as the medical consultants. Cabinet and parliamentary approvals were granted in June and July 2011 respectively.

Following a value for money audit process, the commercial contract was signed in November 2012 and the contractor mobilised to site in April 2013. It is a three-year fixed price contract.

The project is expected to be completed and handed over to government by next month.