Wa, Upper West Region, Ghana, February 16, 2020//-The saying that “after every storm follows calm” is very true of the current state of the Upper West Regional newly constructed hospital was commissioned by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in August 2019.
He commissioned the $52million Upper West Regional Hospital on day two of his tour of the region in August 2019. The unveiling of the 160-bed facility took place on Sunday, August 18, 2019.
The hospital was part of the “Ghana Hospital Project” awarded by the Government of Ghana, in 2008, and executed by Euroget De-Invest S.A of Egypt.
After the pomp and pageantry commissioning of the hospital, the government is yet to equip the facility to enable the people in the region have access to healthcare.
We are faced with an ugly observation in the case of the newly constructed Upper West Regional Hospital.
After months of waiting and fruitless and pedestrian arguments as to who actually constructed the regional hospital and its commissioning, it is now “engulfed in debris and filth” to the amazement and chagrin of all.
The inside environment of the hospital may be well and good but the immediate surroundings leaves much to be desired for any person who knows what should be done right.
On one’s way from the Wa township just after the new airport towards Kaleo, is the location of the newly constructed Upper West Regional hospital.
Some few meters from the highway towards the hospital, the entire surroundings is “engulfed” in debris and filth including constructional waste materials.
Presumably out of the brouhaha of who is the “owner” of the hospital the contractor EUROGET DE-INVEST took advantage of the situation so to say and may have left the scene “unceremoniously”.
And now the immediate surroundings of the new regional hospital is an eyesore for those who are really concerned about the state of affairs of the regional hospital.
One would have expected that being the main “face” of the hospital to the outside world, since it is facing a major highway,the contractor or worse still the new authorities of the hospital and the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the region would have changed the facade of the hospital facing the major highway by adding some facial beauty and aesthetic value. But that is never the case!
Alas after several years of fruitless arguments both on and off air the much touted regional has being left to its “fate” by the very people who claimed to have given it “life” of existence.
Where are the so called “champions of development” as the newly constructed regional hospital has been left in total filth and debris we ask again?
The people of the Upper West Region are watching with keen interest. Apart from the people of the region who are the immediate users of the facility, the surrounding neighboring countries could come and have indeed expressed interest to come to the region and the hospital as health tourists and that in itself will boost local tourism development and revenue generation.
We do not think it’s still late as something pragmatic could be done to save our regional hospital from the unwanted debris and filth that has “engulfed” it.
That is why many well meaning Ghanaians do not take the political gimmicks of political parties in the country serious when it comes development issues.
These parties put up a behavior as if to say that all projects carried out by them during their tenure in office is from their “personal pockets” instead of the national kitty.
The average Ghanaian is the worse for it, the usual political bantering as to who is the “champion of real development”.
From Syedu Bhomanjohr in Wa
