Dr Ernest Addison, Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has officially opened the Bank of Ghana Hospital on Thursday July 8, 2021. He subsequently, acknowledged the past Governors for the various roles they played in building the hospital.
In his address, Dr. Addison ceased the opportunity to acknowledge the contributions of the Former Vice President of the Republic of Ghana, who was also a former Governor of the BoG, Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur. He also mentioned Former Governors such as Dr. Wampah and Dr. Nashiru.
“Let me take this opportunity, therefore, to specially acknowledge the then Governor, the late Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, who begun this whole process, and then Governors Dr. Henry Wampah and Dr. Issahaku Nashiru, who successfully steered, implemented, and executed the Hospital Project to the state in which the new management met it.
Dr. Ernest Addison
“I also want to acknowledge the various Committee members and the entire team who worked tirelessly with dedication to accomplish the task. Today, only a few of the core members of the Committee are still at post but to those who have left the service of the Bank, we all say ‘a big thank you’ for the instrumental roles each of you played in executing this project.”
Dr. Ernest Addison
Moreover, he noted that in as much as Ghanaians acknowledged the usefulness of these ongoing projects to support health care and recreational facilities of bank staff, the Board and the Management recognised the conflicting roles in pursuing the core mandate of the Bank, which is to ensure price and financial stability to foster growth, and effectively managing a hospital.
The Delay in Commissioning the Hospital
However, Dr Addison on the reasons for the delay in commissioning the hospital noted that, on April 2018, the hospital was finally handed over to the Management of the Bank with some critical outstanding issues relating to substantial IT related matters, architectural finishes, as well as electrical, mechanical, and biomedical installations.
He further explained that, while the technical team were working with the contractor to resolve all the outstanding issues and the training of the staff on these installations, he said, an implementation Committee was then set up to help with the operationalization of the hospital following the recommendations of the Blueprint Committee.
Operation of the Hospital
Meanwhile, the Governor noted that the Board and Management decided to carefully craft a path that would ensure sustainably managing this Hospital to best serve the interest of the Bank and the country at large. Therefore, the Board, having recognized that the Bank lacked the expertise to effectively manage a hospital complex, initiated a process to partner the private sector to effectively and sustainably manage The Bank Hospital.
However, on the Business model guiding the operations of a hospital, he said, the implementation Committee recommended that The Bank Hospital should be set up as a commercial entity operating as a general hospital, to provide world-class OPD services, diagnostic services, and medical urology.
Moreover, he said the Committee recommended that the Hospital needed to be operated via a multi-disciplinary teamwork approach with the clinical business units at the OPD being allowed to generate its own income to meet some of its operational costs. Based on these considerations.
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