The Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee has promised to work towards the completion of the maternity ward of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) which work was been halted for the past 40 years.
Augustine Collins Ntim said his Committee would collaborate with the Health Ministry and management of the Hospital to raise the needed capital to complete the project.
“I am concerned and we have made several attempts,” he said on Joy FM’s Newsnite Monday.
Joy News’ cross platform, impact driven documentary ‘Next to Die’ which premiered Monday, highlights challenges pregnant women in labour go through at the Okomfo Anokye hospital in the Ashanti Region.
The situation has been complicated by the absence of adequate rooms to accommodate the many pregnant women at the maternity ward.
A new maternity ward started in 1974 by the Kutu Acheampong government to address the issue has been abandoned by successive governments.
“It is not the best [because] the complication increased as they wait in the corridor,” a doctor with the Hospital said in the documentary.
He explained sometimes women who are in labour are asked to hold on until there is room for them.
Mr Collins Ntim who is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso North in the Ashanti Region registered his worry about the development.
He said his attention has been drawn to similar abandoned projects, about 319 in number, which had started as far back as during the Guggisberg government.
“It is something we should handle with the interest that is required,” he said, committing to the completion of the project.
The MP said the project would require between GHC70 and GHC100 million to get it completed promising to help source funds to do that.
He lauded Joy News for highlighting the project, saying the media house has brought its advocacy work to bear on an important project in the country.
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