Work on the ultra-modern Teaching Hospital of the Kwame University of Science and Technology (KNUST) would soon commence to help facilitate health care delivery in the country, Professor Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, Vice-Chancellor of the University, has disclosed.
He told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Kumasi on Monday that, the project is being funded by the Ghana Education Trust (GET) Fund and that the University Council had decided to construct the Out-Patient-Department (OPD) and other related units first.
The Vice-Chancellor hinted that the project whose actual work commenced some two years ago had been delayed due to lack of funds.
He expressed the hope that the project when completed would go a long way in training medical students of the university as well as pharmacists and nurses to beef up workforce in the health sector.
"With Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) as the only fully fledged teaching hospital for the whole Northen Sector of Ghana, we cannot get the best out of it if we leave it alone to carry the burden of training health personnel which is getting heavier by the day," Professor Adarkwa stated.
He was not happy that in spite of the many initiatives and policies instituted by Government to enhance the health care delivery system in the country, there were still several challenges facing health care provision especially in the rural areas, which sometimes compromise on the level of quality of health care delivery.
Consequently, the Vice-Chancellor urged co-operate bodies to invest in the health sector since a healthy nation always remained wealthy.
He appealed to KATH to expedite action on the release of a suitable space for the Dental Clinic School of KNUST to help the project take off smoothly.