KATH EMERGENCY UNIT TO BE COMPLETED SOON (PAGE 25)

The Accident Emergency Unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), now under construction, will be completed by the end of June to offer quality care to patients in the northern sector of the country as well as those from the West African sub-region.
The unit, which is the biggest in the sub-region, has facilities such as operating theatres, accident units, consulting rooms, X-ray units, pharmacies, recovery wards, a mortuary and a helipad, where helicopters can take off and land to enhance the transportation of accident victims to the centre.
A maternity and children’s block, which will help reduce the pressure on the current one, is also under construction and 25 per cent complete.
When completed, the block will comprise children’s and maternity wards, out-patient departments, offices for doctors, a pharmacy, among others.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr E. A. Owusu-Ansah, who announced this last Friday, during the People’s Assembly held at the Prempeh Assembly Hall, pointed out that a block of 49 flats to accommodate doctors at the KATH is also being constructed.
He said already, 24 of the flats had been completed and handed over.
The People’s Assembly was initiated by President John Agyekum Kufuor to offer ordinary Ghanaians the opportunity to interact fruitfully with the Presidency and government officials to enhance the democratic dispensation and firmly entrench the rule of law in the country.
Mr Owusu Ansah said the numerous projects lined up at the KATH over the last few years were the initiatives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to improve facilities there and enhance quality health care delivery.
He said already, the first phase of a block of 32 flats for medical officers at the hospital, built at the cost of GH¢29,718,217.60, had been completed.
“The second phase of the same project, which is currently underway, is about 85 per cent complete. It consists of 32 flats and is estimated at GH¢650,000.00”, he stressed.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said apart from the facilities at the KATH, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) was also progressing steadily in the Kumasi metropolis and its environs.
He said so far, the scheme had registered a total of 1,816,65 people, representing 40 per cent of the projected population of 4,565,683 in the Ashanti Region.
Mr Owusu-Ansah said out of the total number of registered members, as many as 1,608,488, representing 89 per cent “are ID card bearers who are accessing free medicare from a total of 251 accredited public health facilities and private providers across the length and breath of the region”.
On energy, he said the region had a fair share of the energy crises which undermined the operations of industries and institutions, and added that the government had now “invested huge sums of money in the provision of transformers and sub-stations to improve on power supply for both domestic and commercial use.”