The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has expressed satisfaction with progress on the reconstruction of the La General Hospital in the Greater Accra Region but urged the contractor to accelerate work to meet the project’s completion deadline.
Speaking to journalists after an inspection tour of the facility, Mr Akandoh pledged to continue visiting the site until the hospital is completed, opened and fully operational.
“This is not the first time we are coming here, all of you. We are not new to this project. And not until it is completed, opened and operationalised, we won’t stop coming here,” he said.
The Minister said significant progress had been made since his previous visit, describing developments at the site, including work on the upper floors, as impressive.
However, he maintained that the contractor could do more to speed up construction and ensure the project is delivered on schedule.
“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 stated.
Mr Akandoh emphasised the importance of the hospital to residents within its large catchment area, noting that the absence of an adequately functioning facility continued to affect access to healthcare.
“This is a health facility in a very large catchment area, so without which the people in the area are suffering,” he said.
On concerns about funding, the Minister dismissed suggestions that payment delays were responsible for any slowdown in construction, insisting that the government was fulfilling its financial obligations.
He explained that the contractor’s previous Interim Payment Certificate (IPC) had been paid, while the latest submission had been processed and forwarded to the Ministry of Finance.
“As for payment issues, the government is doing its best to pay them,” he said, adding that the contractor could not use payment delays as justification for suspending or slowing down work.
The Minister disclosed that the total project cost was €50 million, including hospital equipment, with approximately €15 million paid so far.
Mr Akandoh said the project was expected to be completed by the end of 2027, with opening targeted for January 2028.
He nevertheless urged the contractor to increase the pace of work to meet or possibly beat the deadline.
The Minister also disclosed that he had asked the project consultants to review the design of the emergency department to determine whether its bed capacity could be increased.
He said the review was informed by concerns about emergency units in major hospitals, where patients are sometimes turned away because of insufficient beds.
Using Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as an example, Mr Akandoh noted that although the facility has a total bed capacity of more than 1,000, its emergency department has approximately 65 beds.
He suggested that emergency bed capacity should be assessed in relation to the overall size of a hospital, proposing a benchmark of about 10 per cent of total bed capacity.
Under that approach, a hospital with 1,000 beds would have approximately 100 emergency beds, he explained, adding that rising population and healthcare demand made the review necessary.
The Minister said the consultants had been asked to reconfigure the La General Hospital emergency department and relate its proposed capacity to the facility’s total number of beds.
He added that the technical team would examine the proposal, taking into account the contractor’s position that patients were not expected to remain in the emergency department for more than 24 hours.
Mr Akandoh said the review was intended to ensure that the hospital’s design adequately responds to the needs of patients and improves access to emergency care when the facility becomes operational.
