The government has set a deadline of March 2024 for the completion and operationalization of the 500-bed Afari Military Hospital in the Ashanti Region.
This comes after contractors resumed work following financial commitments from the government.
The successful completion of the 500-bed Afari Military Hospital is expected to relieve pressure on the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), a major referral facility in the Ashanti Region. The residents of the region have consistently urged the government to expedite the operationalization of this crucial facility.
Although work on the hospital had stalled due to financial constraints, the project is approximately 90 percent complete, with key facilities such as the Out-Patient Departments and other theaters ready for use.
Presidential Adviser on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, expresses confidence that the project will be completed and open to the public by March 2024.
During a working visit to the project site on Monday, December 4, 2023, Dr. Nsiah Asare said, “The project was stopped for some time because of clearing some financial issues between the Ministry of Finance, Defense, and the Contractor. Thank God we have been able to solve that, and the Contractor has been resourced to move to the site.
Afari Hospital, by the first quarter of next year, God willing, nobody will talk about Afari hospital again. When you are moving here, you are moving here for quality healthcare. The progress of work we have seen for the past one week, I am very certain by March this hospital will be finished.”
Contractors are currently clearing the site to resume full operations, addressing overgrown weeds resulting from the halt of work. Project Resident Engineer, Ahmed Abu Shamaa, explains that major equipment is ready for installation.
Country Manager for Euroget de-Invest, Abraham Dwomoh Odoom, assures the government’s financial commitment to ensure the project’s completion.
He thanked the Ministries of Finance, Defence, and Health, as well as the Government, for ensuring funding issues for the project were addressed to allow contractors to return to the site.
Dr. Nsiah Asare further disclosed that the government plans to commission ongoing health facilities in the Ashanti Region in 2024.
The hospital boasts 50 medical and non-medical buildings, 15 operating theatres, two endoscopy operating rooms, nine delivery rooms, a 157-body capacity mortuary, 64 staff housing units, a medical gas plant for the production of medical gases, and a sterilization department.