Completion works are to start on an uncompleted ward for children and mothers at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), which has been abandoned for almost 50 years, Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso has said.

Dr Owusu-Danso was speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony on Friday, 15 May 2020. f

The 800-bed capacity ward was started in 1974.

The government secured a 138-million-euro funding last year for its completion.

Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso commended the government for the project.

He said: “By virtue of this, the hospital will boast of one of the modern women and children’s facility in the world when completed. The 800-bed project, among others, will have an emergency reception for children and pregnant women, 10 theatres, intensive care units, a breastfeeding centre, a paediatric surgery unit, pharmacy, dedicated medical oxygen plant, lecture halls, cafeteria, gift shops and other specialty facilities.

“Upon completion, this project is expected to revolutinalise the provision of maternal and paediatric care in this part of the country and make the hospital a formidable centre of excellence in the training of specialist health professionals in Ghana and sub-Saharan Africa.”

He noted: “As part of the national efforts to help achieve same-day delivery of COVID-19 test results, I’m happy to announce that management has facilitated a laboratory services directorate here to complete the setup of a COVID-19 testing laboratory. This follows over three weeks of preparation with all the necessary physical infrastructure, equipment and consumables and very good test-runs validated by the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research (KCCR).

“Full operations of this special lab will commence on Monday. This will help relieve the KCCR of some workload and also facilitate prompt delivery of results for all samples taken at the hospital and also those received from other facilities.”