By Edzorna Francis Mensah
The Upper West Regional Caucus of Parliament has called on the Ministry of Health to make seed capital available for effective running of the Regional Hospital.
According to the MPs, since the Hospital was commissioned and operationalized, the Ministry has not resourced the Heath facility with vehicle, ambulance and require drugs for the hospital to function as a Regional Hospital.
It is in this spirit that, MP for Daffiama/Bussie/Issa, Dr. Sebastian Ngmenenso Sandare asked the Minister of Health, when the seed money for the effective operations of the Upper West Regional Hospital will be released, on 16th February 2022.
In responding to the question, the Minister said, “the Ghana Health Service (GHS) does not have the budgetary allocation for such seed money, but new hospital projects have start-up capital and initial supplies inbuilt in their contracts”.
He added that this intervention is to forestall such challenges inhibiting smooth operations of new hospitals.
The Minister disclosed that The Upper West Regional Hospital had initial start-up capital challenges but all is well now and “necessary commodities both drugs and non-drugs are supplied from the regional medical stores and GHS is supporting them by paying utility bills”.
Meanwhile, the MP and his colleagues from the Region were not impressed with the answers provided “because, this Hospital was built as a Regional Hospital to serve the entire Region and beyond but unfortunately, the facility is faced with basic needs”.
At a press conference in Parliament to indicate their displeasure, Dr. Sandare stressed the point that “all is not well with the hospital and we have serious challenges since the seed capital was not released as done for other areas”, he opined.
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