Intermittent increment in building materials impacts negatively on the construction industry — Building Expert

Mr. Simon Sawer Tetteh, Managing Director of Sawer-Nanor and Sons Company Limited has reaffirmed that the intermittent increment in building materials such as cement, and iron rods were impacting negatively on the construction industry.

He noted that as a result of the price fluctuation players in the industry always end up adjusting the initial quotation to clients which sometimes creates discomfort and loss of investment.

Mr. Tetteh stated at the commissioning of the New Crystal Health Services Limited’s upgraded Hospital facility at Michel Camp to provide family-and-patient-centered care to residents of Kpone-Katamanso, monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) at Michel Camp, near Tema.

The facility was funded with loans and grants from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) a sister organization of the World Bank and has AMPC International Health Consultants BV as the project managers and Sawer-Nanor and Sons Company Limited as the contractor.

The facility which used to be a health center has been expanded and upgraded into a hospital to meet all the growing demands of clients.

Mr. Tetteh however expressed concern about the lack of skilled labour in the construction sector which was another huge problem that made it difficult for players to make use of local content in project execution.

He said as much as the construction industry was ready to adhere to the policy on the employment of local labour force, due to the skills required sometimes “we have to rely on very old hands or look elsewhere for the supply of labour”.

He, therefore, advised the youth to take apprenticeship seriously to enable them to take up such works as the only way to be skillful was to have the patient to learn the practical training from their master craftsmen.

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Board Chairman of New Crystal Health Services Limited explained that as part of the Company’s resolve to provide quality health care to its clients who were mostly low-income people, it had to expand to provide them with more options for their healthcare.

Prof. Akosa said the new hospital would now not only provide the general services it used to provide but would also run specialists’ clinics for Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT), urology, skin, prosthetics and orthotics, among others.

Dr Wisdom Amegbletor, Chief Executive Officer of the New Crystal, stressed on the need to expand and upgrade the facility “because of the quality of service we give our clients so in spite of the small facility we have a lot of clients who come in and the place get crowded with some receiving treatment in chairs, we try to refer them but still they don’t want to go.”

Dr Amegbletor said with the new facility, they were ready to offer a family and patient-centered care based on the principles of dignity and respect, patient participation, information sharing, and collaboration.

He said as Africans, the family was more important than individuals and therefore decided to be conscious of the traditional roots which was the family, being the center of everything, and for that matter the need to place the family at the heart of their services.

He further noted that they also recognized that the community they operated in was a major stakeholder.

Therefore the need to collaborate with them by bringing together more people from outside its management to look into its operations and advise them on the best way forward, the best practices, the things they were doing wrong, and how best to correct them to ensure that they continue to stay relevant and meet the needs of the people.

On the use of local contractors, he commended the work done and called on the government and other investors to appreciate the work of local contractors as they were equally capable of delivering quality works.

Nii Tetteh Otu II, Paramount Chief of Kpone, chairing the commissioning, commended New Crystal for bringing health care to the doorsteps of residents and urged management to institute good maintenance culture.