Delivering his eighth televised address to the nation on the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the country on Sunday, April 26, 2020, the President said: “There are eighty-eight (88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have 5 infectious disease control centres dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing eighty-eight (88) hospitals in the districts without hospitals.”
But some have asked where government is going to get the funds to construct those facilities, especially so when they were not factored in the budget.
Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, speaking on Peace FM‘s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, clarified that the 88 facilities will be completed by 2021 and not this year as it is being speculated.
He said “there will be documentation and other paperwork, cabinet approval including funding will be done this year before the construction begins“.
According to him, “Indeed it is not in the budget, The president gave a policy directive and it is up to the sector ministers and the finance minister to come up with a roadmap to fund the project. I don’t think the fact that it is not in the budget will be a problem”.
Source: Peacefmonline.com
