The infrastructure improves service delivery as well as quality. One key area in improving human development is health service delivery and infrastructure because it improves the life expectancy of a country.
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How long will it take Nana Addo to complete the 88 or 111 hospitals promised? - Kojo asks
If the government wants to reduce poverty, then it needs good infrastructure to support growth.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo
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However, allocations to the health infrastructure are woefully inadequate in the 2021 budget.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said the revised National Health Policy that promises to provide the requisite leadership and resources for its effective implementation dubbed Agenda 111 is the biggest healthcare investment in Ghana's history.
He announced the construction of 111 district hospitals across the country.
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Delivering the State of the Nation address of his second term on Tuesday, March 9, 2021, the President said "Last year, thirty-three (33) major health projects were approved for implementation at a cost of eight hundred and ninety million euros (€890 million). Key amongst them are the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Tema General Hospital, the Nephrology and Urology Centre at Korle-Bu, Redevelopment of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital into a Teaching Hospital, and the Construction of a new Regional Hospital at Agona Nkwanta in the Western Region."
According to him, "Agenda 111 is part of a massive vision for Ghana’s healthcare sector, the realization of which will lead to Ghana becoming a Centre of Medical Excellence and a destination for medical tourism.
He also announced that the government will commence the construction of hospitals in the 88 districts in the country without hospitals.
In a televised address to the nation during his updates on Ghana's situation on the COVID-19 pandemic on Sunday, April 26, 2020, he said "There are 88 districts in our country without hospitals. We have six new regions without regional hospitals. We do not have infectious disease control centres dotted across the country and we don't have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVID-19. We must do something urgently about this.
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But the money allocated for Health Infrastructure is GH¢45.5 million and the money can't build two state-of-the-art hospitals in the country not to talk of 88 or 111 hospitals.
I think the 88 or 111 hospitals are projects earmarked for four the year, second term of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and not the year 2021. I doubt if one of the 88 hospitals will be completed this year.
Human development depends on education, health, and per capita which looks at the standard of living. Per capita does not measure the standard of living because of the issue of inequality.
Therefore, investing in health and education holds the key to human development.
We must always remember that the budget is not a campaign promise and for that matter, the need to employ measures in formulating our budget statements
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Do you believe the 88 or 111 health facilities will be completed in 2021?
We wait to see.
Pulse Editor's Opinion is the opinion of an editor of Pulse. It does not represent the opinion of the organization Pulse.
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