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A comparative analysis of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) performance in the health sector in the Ashanti Region by Liberal Institute Policy Studies (LIPS), a centre-right think tank, has shown that the current government has done more than the NDC.
LIPS, a Think Tank whose preoccupation is to use research and data to evaluate the performances of the NPP and NDC, said it used statistics from the past 16 years for its analysis, and that while the NDC inherited six hospital projects in the Ashanti Region in 2009, for the eight years that it stayed in power, it could not complete a single one of them.
At a press conference to disseminate the findings of its research, the Executive Director of LIPS, Dr Kerskine Owusu Poku, said the group planned to evaluate the performance of the two dominant parties —NDC and NPP — in the development of the Ashanti Region.
He said when the NDC took over power on January 7, 2009, it inherited six hospital projects in the Ashanti Region.
These hospitals, he said, were the Bekwai Hospital, which was started by the Acheampong regime; the four Euroget projects which were initiated by the Kufuor regime (Konongo, Tepa, Sewua and Afari) and the 800-bed Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Teaching Hospital.
However, he said, when the party exited government in 2017, “none of these hospital projects were completed from January 7, 2009 to January 6, 2017. “The NDC sought funding for Bekwai Hospital in 2010 and secured the same in 2012. However, the NDC could not finish the hospital project”.
“On Euroget projects that started in 2008, the NDC revisited the project in 2014. As at the time of leaving office, none was completed,” he stated. He said the 800-bed KNUST Teaching Hospital, which was started by the University with an Internally Generated Fund, was completely abandoned by the NDC government during its time in power.
In sharp contrast, Dr Poku said in 2019, the NPP sought additional funding to complete the age-long Bekwai District Hospital and commissioned it for use in 2021. And out of the four inherited Euroget projects, three have been completed.
They are the Konongo and Tepa district hospitals and the Sewua Regional Hospital which is yet to be inaugurated and awaiting the installation of a sub-station power transmission.
“The 500-bed Afari Military Hospital is about 95 per cent completed and work is ongoing in earnest to complete and inaugurate it for use. Regarding the 800-bed KNUST Teaching Hospital which was abandoned for eight years under the NDC, the NPP government has secured a loan of €80 million for the continuation and completion of the project.
“In addition to these, the Fomena and Kumawu district hospitals which were inherited from the NDC have also been completed. The Fomena Hospital is currently in use and the Kumawu District Hospital was handed over to the Assembly in the second week of April and is expected to be in use in May according to the District Chief Executive, Addai Agyekum,” he stated.
Dr Poku said from 2009 to 2016, the NDC initiated only two hospital projects in the Ashanti region, which were the Fomena and Kumawu hospitals but could not complete any of them before leaving office.
On the other hand, Dr Poku said the NPP in its eight years, initiated 24 new hospital projects with 19 of them under the Agenda 111 and five under the VAMED project. He stated that while the five VAMED projects — Sabronum, Manso-Nkwanta, Suame-Anomangye, Drobonso and Twedie — have been completed and handed over to the government, those under the Agenda 111 projects were yet to be completed.
“We can, therefore, say that the record of the NPP in the Ashanti Region on health infrastructure development and delivery is stronger than that of the NDC”.
