Ho, Aug. 11, GNA - Work has started on a 1.4 billion-cedi six-pavilion-classrooms for the Nurses Training College (NTC) and the Community Health Nurses Training School (CHNTS) in Ho.

The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa cut the sod for the project on Tuesday and said the situation in which many qualified students could not be admitted for training for lack of adequate infrastructure was unacceptable.

He said when completed in about two months, the project would enable the NTC to raise its student admission from the current 40 to 100, while the CHNTS would increase its in-take from 100 to 200 from the 2004/2005 academic year.

Mr Owusu-Yeboa said out of 1,200 applications for the NTC this year, only 150 of them were short-listed for interview, of which 40 would be offered admission.

He said the CHNTS received 1,500 applications out of which 300 have been invited for the interview and 100 would be admitted. Mr Owusu-Yeboa said there would be funds to complete work on the reactivated NTC and School of Hygiene complex that had been at a standstill for about 30 years now.

"This would show our government's commitment to improving the numbers of trained health professionals in the country', Mr Owusu-Yeboa said. Regarding staffing, Dr Andrew Arde-Acquah, Volta Regional Director of Health, said the Directorate has been able to get six doctors to accept posting to the region.

Dr Arde-Acquah expressed optimism that requests for more funds towards the completion of houses for health personnel would receive a favourable response. Togbe Dekortsu II, Afetorfia, of Ho-Heve, who presided, commended the government for initiating a number of measures for improving health delivery in the country.