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12.07.2018 Health

Gov't Is Looking For Money For Ofankor Health Centre – Health Minister

By CitiNewsRoom
Gov't Is Looking For Money For Ofankor Health Centre – Health Minister
12.07.2018 LISTEN

The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has said the government is in the process of sourcing for funds, to conduct maintenance works on the Ofankor Health Center.

These works, he said, are crucial for the opening of the facility which has not been opened to the public, months after it was completed, with funding from the African Development Bank.

The center, if inaugurated will serve residents of the Ga West Municipality who have to seek medical care elsewhere.

The Minister told Citi News the government is committed towards the operationalization of the Ofankor facility and other abandoned facilities across the country.

“We are looking for money to do some maintenance, to find equipment and to put in people to work in there, so we are working on that. There are about seven or eleven of those facilities, about four or five of them within the northern zone of this country, it is not as simple as you think but we are working on them,” he said.

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Project abandoned due to inadequate equipment

Inusah Fuseini, the former minister under whose supervision the CHPS compound at Ofankor was started, had said operationalizing the facility delayed because of inadequate medical facilities .

According to him, the project funded by the African Development Bank was supposed to be stocked with equipment by the Ministry of Health.

Mr. Fuseini said although the government has stocked the facility, he has information that the facility is not operational because the equipment is not enough.

“The Ministry of Health was contacted, I understand they've provided some equipment, but the equipment is not enough to operationalize the hospital, and that is why it is under lock and key. The health authorities are of the view that the equipment is not enough to be operational as a health post,” he added in an interview in January 2018.

Abandoned health facilities
The Ofankor health facility is part of numerous health facilities that although have been completed have not been functioning.

They include CHPS compounds at Tetegu and Teshie .

Citi FM subsequently put pressure on the government to have such facilities as operationalized.

Due to Citi FM's advocacy, the government recently decided to operationalize the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre which hitherto had been abandoned because of a tussle between government and management of the school over who is supposed to manage the facility.

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