Officially known as the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), it serves as the top medical facility in the Ashanti Region and is perhaps the second largest medical facility in the entire nation.
The name of the hospital which was built in 1954, as it suggests is in honor of Komfo Anokye, the great priest who per history was instrumental in the rise of the Asante Kingdom.
But whereas official documents and people outside Kumasi know the hospital as Komfo Anokye, the locals prefer to call it Gee.
For most people in Kumasi, the name Gee rings a bell easier and faster than Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
The use of Gee as the alternative and perhaps more popular name for the hospital has triggered the inquisitiveness of many people who have been longing to know about the history behind it.
GhanaWeb thus spoke to a site guide at the Komfo Anokye Hospital who detailed the story behind the use of ‘Gee’ as the moniker for the Ashanti Region’s premier hospital.
“The word Gee is not the official name of the hospital. It is the name of one of the contractors who built the hospital. The name of the firm was Gee, Walker & Slater Ltd. Compared to Walker and Slater, Gee was more easy to pronounce so he was more known to the indigenes. That’s how come the name of the hospital is called Gee.”
According to ghanasonline.com, the hospital was initially called Kumasi Central Hospital before being changed to Komfo Anokye Hospital.
The report adds that “Samuel Gee, after the construction of the hospital, attempted to pull out the Komfo Anokye sword, at times using heavy-duty machinery, but failed.”