Health Minister-designate, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has noted that government’s plan to construct 111 district hospitals across the country will cost about 707 million US dollars maximum.

According to him, a district hospital may cost between 5 to 7 million dollars from the estimations made by his outfit.

Though the initial plan was to construct 88 district hospitals, the health minister-designate during his vetting with Parliament’s Appointments Committee noted that an additional 13 has been added to the project, making it 111 now.

Mr Agyeman-Manu while giving details on this issue said, “Mr Chair, the initial costing was done on the basis of averages and we are looking at between 5 million to 7 million dollars per hospital.”

“When the issue of equipment and other logistics came in, we were still thinking that the maximum, 7 million dollars could do what we should do. If you multiply this by 88, and 88 has even changed to 111, we’re adding on regional hospitals for regions that do not have regional hospitals, especially the 6 new ones plus Western region; the south-west region.”

Meanwhile, serious work has not yet commenced on this agenda 111 district hospitals project due to the coronavirus pandemic, the health-minister designate noted.

He also revealed that the Akufo-Addo-led government is rehabilitating Effia-Nkwanta regional hospital to work more efficiently.