Parliament Approves €47m for UGMC Phase II

Ghana’s parliament has approved a €47million loan facility for the completion of the second phase of the University of Ghana Medical Centre.

Phase two of the project will equip the hospital with facilities such as a VIP maternity and private floor, cardio-vascular and open heart surgery unit; and a neurosurgery unit.

There has been public outcry lately about the delay in using the facility despite its inauguration two years ago.

In parliament on Monday, Minority member of the Finance Committee and MP for Ho Central, Benjamin Kpodo, said government should make the centre run and pay for part of the loan since it has immense potential to generate its own revenue.

“We think that there should be an on-lending agreement for a question of the loan. We have done it in the past. For instance, the Kumasi-Kejetia market project, part of it has been on-lend while the rest will be paid for by the government, so, I think that we should consider on-lending part of the facility to the medical centre so that there will be accountability.”

“There will be an escrow as my colleague has said earlier, where some of the revenue will be lodged, but if all the amounts are paid into the consolidated fund without the control of the medical centre, it is possible that it will also suffer from capping of the internally generated funds and it will become very difficult for the hospital to function”.

However, Chairman of the Health Committee, Dr Kwabena Twum Nuamah, said the revenue generated from the hospital must rather go into maintaining the facility so as to boost its operations.

“As part of the phase two, one of the major strategies in there is to equip these facilities with income generating components so that they will be able to make enough revenue to maintain and sustain these state-of-the-art equipment to make them functional all the time.”

Source: ClassFMonline