President John Dramani Mahama has criticised the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration for what he described as a “deceptive” elevation of the Sunyani Regional Hospital to a teaching hospital without the necessary legal and infrastructural requirements.

Speaking during his Thank-You Tour of the Bono Region on Friday, May 30, Mahama stated that the NPP’s designation of the facility as a teaching hospital lacked both legal backing and the infrastructure needed to support such a status.

“The previous government’s announcement upgrading the Sunyani Regional Hospital to a teaching hospital was not supported by any legislative framework.

We have corrected that,” Mahama said. “The Council of State has approved the board, and we are collaborating with the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) to commence the training of health professionals to serve the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo regions and beyond.”

As part of broader efforts to strengthen healthcare and education in the region, Mahama also announced plans to establish a medical school at UENR.

He emphasised that the university had suffered years of stagnation due to underinvestment, a situation his administration intends to reverse.

“UENR has suffered stagnation due to inadequate investment.

The new NDC administration is going to change that,” he noted. “One of the first steps we have taken is to uncap the GETFund, which will free up resources for critical infrastructure projects across all educational institutions.”

According to Mahama, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has already conducted an infrastructure audit at UENR and will soon begin construction of new facilities to support the development of a fully-fledged medical school.