La General Hospital will be completed by early 2028 - Health Minister

Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has expressed satisfaction with the progress of work at the La General Hospital but urged the contractor to speed up work to beat the completion deadline.

Speaking to journalists after an inspection tour of the facility, the Minister pledged to visit the facility a number of times till it is completed, commissioned and operationalized.

"This is the first time we are coming here, all of you. We are not new to this project. And not until it is completed, commissioned and operationalized, we won't stop coming here. We want to make sure that everything is going according to plan," he stated.

According to him, there has been massive progress since his last visit.

"We all attest to the fact that there has been massive progress since we left here the last time. I've gone round as far as to the last floor where they are at the moment. Yes, there's quite an impressive development. But I've hinted them that I think that they are doing well, but they can do better. They can speed up so that we can beat the deadline," he said.

He stressed the importance of the facility to residents within the area.

"This is a health facility in a very large catchment area, so without which the people in the area are suffering.”

On funding, Hon. Akandoh dismissed claims of payment delays as an excuse for slow work, insisting government is honouring its obligations.

"I don't think that there's any issue or delay of payment. I mean, as for payment issues, the government is doing its best to pay them. As far as I recall, they have just brought their last IPCs. The last but one IPC has been paid. And they've just brought another one. We have worked on it. We've pushed through finance. So they cannot cite delay of payment as an excuse for any suspension or any delay," he explained.

The Minister disclosed that the total project cost is €50 million including hospital equipment and about €15 million has been paid so far.

"My data infrastructure tells me the payment we have done so far is around 15 million euros. So the whole is denominated in euros. So 50 million euros and we paid about 15 million euros. But you see, it includes the hospital equipment," he clarified.

On the timelines, the Minister said: "The completion date, we are looking at the end of 2027. That's the first quarter of 2028. By January, we should commission it. But that's what I'm saying, that we can speed up to beat the deadline."

Hon. Akandoh revealed that he has asked consultants to reconfigure the emergency department to increase its bed capacity.

"I wanted to know the component of the emergency department of the unit. And the consultant tells me how to reconfigure it and get back to me. And we learn from experience."

He explained that many major hospitals turn away emergency cases due to inadequate emergency beds.

"We have all realized that from time to time, some facilities turn patients away because they don't have beds. And when they say beds, they are talking about the emergency beds. And we realize that a facility such as Korle Bu, for example, is more than 1,000 bed capacity. But the emergency is around 65 bed capacity. So we thought that maybe it should be a minimum of about 10%. If you do 10%, you should have about 100 bed capacity at the emergency. So going forward, we have to look at that proportion very well. Because the population is actually increasing," he stated.

He added: "So that's what I was trying to draw their attention to. So they should reconfigure it and then correlate it to the total number of beds we have in this facility."

He said the technical team will work on the proposal, noting that the contractor has indicated that patients are not expected to stay at the emergency for more than 24 hours.

"The technical people will put their heads together and do the work," he concluded.