He said that way, the institution would become an exclusive health institution of excellence in the country.

Mr Ofori-Atta was speaking at a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of the hospital in Accra yesterday.

Government’s commitment

The Finance Minister charged the management of the hospital to set up a committee to ensure that a new administrative model was developed.

“I believe the military should seek a new paradigm regarding the way the hospital is managed, so that we in Ghana and West Africa can claim to have an institution of excellence,” he said.

He said the government was ready to engage all key stakeholders, including the military, the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Ministry of Finance and healthcare specialists in Ghana and the Diaspora, in collective interests of the hospital.

Challenges

Mr Ofori-Atta observed that issues of staffing, broken down equipment, constraints with logistics, infrastructural expansion, maintenance and others were challenges facing the hospital, adding, however, that “in spite of these difficulties, we will continue to make the 37 Military Hospital relevant and even more significant to befit its status as a national emergency and disaster hospital and a UN referral health facility”.

The minister said the government was examining the feasibility of constructing a third military hospital in Tamale in the Northern Region and was committed to completing the military hospital currently under construction in Kumasi.

He congratulated the staff of the hospital and lauded its management the selfless services and urged them to do more.

Assurance

For his part, the Deputy Minister of Defence, Major Derek Oduro (rtd), gave an assurance to increase the number of staff of the hospital as it expanded its services to cover the entire country.
He announced that preparations were underway to inaugurate the Kumasi branch of the 37 Military Hospital in February next year.

The anniversary

The ceremony was attended by officers from the Ghana Armed Forces and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and government officials, including the Minister of the Interior, Mr Ambrose Dery.

Personnel from the Ghana Army, the Navy, the GIS and some civilian workers of the hospital mounted a parade in celebration of the landmark.

Also in commemoration of the event, a monument erected at the forecourt of the hospital was unveiled.

The hospital currently provides services for over 80,000 military men and women, as well as civilians.