Agortime-Ziope District to partner Catholic Church to complete Agenda 111 hospital — MP reveals

The Member of Parliament for Agortime-Ziope, Hon. Charles Akwasi Agbeve, has disclosed that the district is considering a partnership with the Catholic Church to complete the stalled Agenda 111 Hospital project in the district.

According to him, discussions have already commenced between his office and the District Chief Executive to meet with the leadership of the Catholic Church to explore the possibility of the Church taking over the project.

"We are praying and hoping that the Catholic Church will try and see if they can take over ours. The District Chief Executive and I have discussed this, but we are yet to meet the bishop," the MP said.

He explained that preliminary groundwork is ongoing ahead of the meeting with the bishop to secure a positive response, including identifying Catholic priests in the health sector to assess the facility.

He expressed confidence in the capacity of the Catholic Church, noting its track record in health delivery in Ghana. He cited hospitals such as Anfoega Hospital, Margaret Marquart, St. Anthony, Sacred Heart and Komboni Hospital as examples of health facilities established by the Church.

Addressing concerns about whether such a takeover would change the status of the hospital, the MP said it would not, stressing that government already has a partnership with faith-based health providers through the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG).

He explained that under that arrangement, government puts up the infrastructure and provides manpower and funding through the National Health Insurance Scheme, while the Church manages the facility - a model he said has proven successful.

The MP said the district is giving itself at least a year for negotiations and planning, admitting that the process will not be easy.

He lamented the current state of the project, revealing that work done so far is far below expectation. According to him, if the previous government had completed about 70 to 80 percent of the work, it would have been easier to attract a partner to invest the remaining two to three million dollars.

"For a 20 million dollar facility, they have not even done five million dollars worth of work, so we are still way back and that is scary and involves a huge amount of money," he stated.

He acknowledged growing public agitation over delayed Agenda 111 projects across the country, saying that while other constituencies have already started protesting, his constituency could soon follow if the situation is not managed through dialogue.

He described Agenda 111 as a major headache for government, disclosing that government has selected 35 hospitals to be completed on grounds of equity, with two selected in the Volta Region - Adaklu and Akatsi North.

He added that the second phase of the strategy is to seek partnerships with private institutions and private sector players to take over the remaining projects.