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The Ahafo Regional Director of Health Service, Dr Samuel Kwabena Boakye-Boateng, has called on the government to provide the necessary infrastructure and logistics for the Goaso Government Hospital to enable it to deliver quality health care to people in the region.
"We need infrastructure and equipment to strengthen its capacity because we see it as the regional hospital," he stated, explaining that until the government established a regional hospital, the facility would continue to serve as the regional hospital.
Dr Boakye-Boateng expressed the need for the government and other philanthropists to improve the infrastructure, equipment and logistics of the hospital.
He was speaking at the inauguration of a fully-furnished 10-room Special Ward at the hospital at Goaso in the Asunafo North Municipality, last Friday.
The GH¢400,000 facility was constructed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Evans Opoku Bobie, from his share of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) fund.
The 10-room facility has washrooms for each room, modern beds, air conditioners and a television, among others.
The hospital is currently serving as the Ahafo Regional Hospital, after the creation of the Ahafo Region in 2019.
However, the facility has a huge healthcare infrastructure and logistic deficits, making it very difficult for it to provide the required services to the people.
Additionally, the hospital, which is serving the region and some parts of the Bono and Western North regions, has old infrastructure.
A source from the hospital's administration told the Daily Graphic that the old nature of the facility made renovation work very costly and difficult.
The hospital has a single emergency unit, serving both male and female, which prevented privacy and quality emergency service delivery.
It also lacked staff accommodation, among others.
The hospital was established in 1950 as a dispensary facility.
In 1962, it was converted into a health centre and subsequently upgraded to a municipal hospital in 1987.
The 118-bed facility has 678 staff and treated about 60,000 patients in 2022.
Dr Boakye-Boateng urged health professionals to treat patients with dignity, love and patience.
He said the good relationship with patients could touch their hearts to come back to support the hospital.
Mr Bobie, who is also the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, also inspected the 75 per cent completed infectious disease centre being financed by the COVID-19 Fund.
He debunked claims that the government misused the COVID-19 fund, explaining that the fund was used judiciously.
He said part of the fund was used to construct disease centres across the 16 regions.
He explained that he had used the NHIA fund to construct other health projects such as a five-bedroom nurses' quarters at Ayumso, a 40-bedroom bungalow and Polyclinic at Mim and also to complete some projects started by his predecessor in the area.
Mr Bobie said healthcare infrastructure was crucial in the delivery of quality healthcare.
He added that the hospital was a preferred destination to the people in the area and expressed the need for the improvement of facilities to ease pressure on it.
Mr Bobie said he constructed the ward to increase the number of wards within the hospital and ease the increasing pressure on the hospital's wards.
He appealed to the management of the hospital to ensure periodic maintenance of the special ward to continue to serve its purpose.
Mr Bobie said the lack of maintenance on government projects was a major problem in the country, as managers of some facilities left them to deteriorate and pledged to continue to invest and lobby for projects towards the development of the area.
