The Minister Designate for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has revealed that the district hospitals promised by President Akufo-Addo have increased in number and will cost between five and seven million dollars each.
According to Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, the initial number of hospitals promised to be built has increased from 88 to 111.
“The 88 has even changed to 111. We are adding on regional hospitals for regions that do not have regional hospitals especially the six new regions which do not have.”
“We are also rehabilitating the Afia-Nkwanta Hospital. This in addition to other places we left out when we were counting the districts without hospitals—88—has brought the number to 111,” he revealed.
Speaking about the cost of each hospital, he said the average is between five and seven million dollars and will reduce or increase depending on their location.
“The initial costing was done on the basis of averaging. We are looking at between five million to seven million dollars per hospital.”
“When the issue of equipment and other logistics came in, they were thinking that a maximum of seven million should do what we should do.”
“When the team went out, the topography of land and all that is indicating that prices might not be uniform across the country. In some cases, there may be some escalations while other places it may reduce.” He said.
In his response to a question of total cost involved, Mr. Agyeman-Manu told the committee that they are still computing and as a result he is unable to tell what the exact amount will be.
That notwithstanding, he noted that It will be an estimate of the figures he mentioned i.e multiplying the average costs by the number of hospitals with exception of regional hospitals because they [regional hospitals] will come at a different cost.
