Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Construction Industry, Emmanuel Martey has petitioned government to consider members of the association in the plan to build 88 district hospitals across the country.
According to Mr. Martey, the Ghana Chamber of Construction companies wants government to honor its pledge insisting that its members have the capacity to execute these projects.
“Our membership includes Surveying, Engineering, and Architecture, Planning up to management, so we want to partner government to ensure this laudable idea is implemented and the benefits inure to Ghanaians. So we are very much interested and we want to appeal to government, we have the expertise locally”.
Emmanuel Martey
Government as part of efforts to improve access to healthcare announced to construct 100 bed hospitals in 88 districts nationwide.
In addition, government would also provide new regional hospitals in regions that do not have one.
Already, government had indicated that it will ensure that these projects are executed by local construction companies.
Mr. Martey made these assertions on the sidelines of the launch of a Public-Private Dialogue Platform (PPD).
The platform will enable the public and private sectors dialogue on issues that affect the construction industry. The platform would consist on policy makers, the business community, research institutions, civil society organizations and the media.
The chamber says government has on a number of times embarked on projects without engaging stakeholders in the private sector, a phenomenon the platform seeks to address.
“This platform would ensure that the gap between academia and industry is closed, the differences between the public sector and the private sector are ironed out so that we are on the same level because the interest of both the private and the public is to ensure that we have value for money from the developments that are done. So how do we ensure that they are done? The PPD is for major policy issues which we believe that if we discuss objectively and dispassionately and we arrive on a conclusion then we are committed to implement the conclusion that we arrive at which would lead to the required results”, Mr. Martey added.
Government to construct 94 new hospitals within a year
President Nana Akufo-Addo on April, 26, announced plans to construct 94 new hospitals across 88 districts and the six newly created regions.
These new health facilities are intended to complement the existing ones and fortify the delivery of health services to individuals with various health challenges.
“There are 88 districts in our country without district hospitals and we have six regions without regional hospitals. We do not have infectious disease control centres dotted across the country and we do not have enough disease testing and isolation centres for diseases like Covid-19”.
In his 8th address to announce the measures taken by his administration against the spread of the novel coronavirus, the President admitted that the pandemic has exposed the deficiencies of the healthcare system because of years of “under-investment.”
