The $217-million medical facility is expected to commence operations in January 2017.

Briefing the Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, when he inspected progress of work on the project yesterday, the Project Manager, Professor Aaron Lawson, said it would be completed within schedule.

The facility comprised eight separate buildings, he said, adding that it would house different specialised areas such as Emergency, Imaging, operating theatres, laboratories and a computer room.

Besides, it would have maternity and pediatric clinics, an orthopaedic centre, an in-patient medical training facility, staff accommodation and a maintenance and logistics building.

External works, such as roads, a helipad, a guard post, drainage, infrastructure of electric and mechanical works and medical and non-medical equipment  are also progressing steadily.

The project is being undertaken by Messrs Engineering and Development Consultants Limited, with medical consultation provided by the Sheba Medical Centre of Israel.

Internal medicine

Prof. Lawson explained that the hospital would commence with internal medical care when it began operating in January 2017 and would function fully a few months after.

He said the 650-bed facility was expected to provide cutting-edge medical training and research for various health professionals.

“As part of the project, a number of Ghanaian health professionals, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists have undergone short-term hands-on training at the Sheba Medical Centre and they are expected to constitute a critical mass of staff to be engaged,” he said.

He said the one-stop medical facility, in addition to medical training and research opportunities for medical professionals in Ghana, would also provide sub-specialist services.

He indicated that measures had been put in place to ensure quality conditions of service for the staff to avoid any interruptions in the hospital’s operations once it started operations.

Services

Prof. Lawson said the specialist services would be in areas such as surgery, radiology, internal medicine, pharmacy, pediatrics, medical education, anaesthesia, gynaecology, accident and emergency services and mortuary.

 The two-phase project, with a loan facility from the Israeli government, is the first of its kind in the West African sub-region and is expected to help improve healthcare delivery in the country and the sub-region.

He said the hospital was a referral centre which would apply the rules of tertiary hospitals such as the Korle Bu and the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospitals.

Phase two

Prof. Lawson said the second phase of the project would commence after the hospital started operations.

That phase, he said, would include the addition of 400 beds, a modern community morgue, heart, cancer and rehabilitation centres, as well as a dialysis unit.

Vice-President’s remarks

Inspecting the project, Mr Amissah-Arthur charged the management of the hospital to put in place a robust maintenance policy to ensure that the facility was kept in shape to serve its intended purpose of improved medical care for the West African sub-region for a long time.

He said maintaining the facility would ensure value for the money invested and also generate additional funds to replicate the project in other parts of the country.

He said if managed well, the UGTH could be a source of medical tourism to generate more revenue to boost national development, particularly in the health sector.

He said with those facilities, Ghanaians would no longer have to seek medical care outside the country, while foreigners would also be attracted to patronise the services of the hospital.

Mr Amissah-Arthur further stated that the one-stop shop medical facility would complement the services of the other referral and teaching hospitals because it had more ultra-modern facilities.

He charged the contractors to use more local content in the execution of the project.