By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
Government is highly optimistic that Ghana will achieve the World Health Organisation’s Universal Health Coverage before the set target year of 2030, considering progress being made in the various health interventions across the country.
The hope is further strengthened by the steady progress of hospital construction under the government’s flagship health programme of ‘Agenda 111’ with an indication that at least 87 of the District Hospitals will be operational before the end of next year to increase access to quality healthcare.
The Presidential Advisor on Health and Coordinator of ‘Agenda 111’, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, disclosed this at Offinso in the Ashanti region, at a durbar to climax the 70th anniversary of St. Patrick’s Hospital.
Started by the Sisters of St. Louis of the Catholic Church at Offinso Asamankama in the Ashanti region, the St. Patrick’s Hospital, now located at Maase, also a suburb of Offinso, has grown in leaps and bounds in terms of physical facilities, range of available services, human resources, attendance to revenue over the 70-year period.
The St. Patrick’s Hospital today not only has an accredited Nursing and Midwifery Training School as an attachment but is also rated as the biggest secondary healthcare provider in the Ashanti region and 2nd in Ghana among the about 49 facilities under the Christian Health Association of Ghana, CHAG. It is the main referral facility for the Offinso Municipality, Offinso North, and the neighbouring administrative districts within the Ashanti and Bono East regions.
It is to acknowledge this feat that the authorities set out to commemorate the 70th milestone with various activities, with a grand durbar of all major stakeholders at Offinso Maase as a climax under the theme: “Providing World-Class Healthcare with Compassion, Now and Beyond”.
The Administrator of the Hospital, Mr. Christian Abban Sarpor, said though the recent government policy directive for all hospitals to pay for their electricity consumption is seriously affecting the facility’s operational cost, management looks into the future with high hopes of delivering far better than the hospital is currently doing for humanity.
A Deputy Minister for Health, Mr. Mahama Seini, commended the partnership between the church and state in the provision of healthcare to the people, indicating that CHAG institutions contribute about 40 percent to healthcare accessibility in Ghana.
A former Deputy Director General of the W. H. O., Dr. Anarfi Asamoah Baah, who was also the Coordinator for Ghana’s COVID-19 Response and was the Guest Speaker, charged the hospital to conscientise all its key stakeholders, particularly the staff, if its vision of becoming a centre of excellence providing human-centre quality healthcare is to be achieved.
The Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, expressed optimism that a minimum of 87 of the hospitals being built across the country under ‘Agenda 111’ would be operational by the end of next year to boost Ghana’s attainment of the W.H.O.’s Universal Health Coverage before the 2030 target date.
As part of the 70th anniversary and also towards the provision of a complete healing process for the sick, the Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, Most Rev. Gabriel Anokye, inaugurated and dedicated a newly built chapel under the Chaplaincy Department of the Hospital to offer spiritual care to visitors to the hospital.
Management of the Hospital also presented various prizes ranging from cash, refrigerators to plaques to both retirees and long-serving staff for their committed services.
