Former Vice-Chancellor of University of Ghana, Legon, Emeritus Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, has stressed the need for the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) to be opened.

According to him, steps must be taken immediately to ensure the hospital begins operations.

Speaking with Mike Eghan Senior, host of ‘Conversations with Mike Eghan,’ a flagship programme on Eezy107.5 FM in Accra last week Thursday, Professor Addae-Mensah said teaching hospitals in universities are run by thevarious universities, even though they are government owned, thus charging government to put aside any political considerations and make sure the University of Ghana Hospital is run as a university teaching hospital.

His call comes in the wake of a final-year pharmacy student at the University of Ghana, Reginald Sekyi-Brown, who displayed a placard with the inscription “Open UGMC Now” when First Lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo, visited the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to cut sod for the construction of a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit to open the University’s Medical Centre, which has been closed down to the public, with its state-of-the-art equipment wasting away.

He said: “I would strongly advise that the teaching hospital that has been built on Legon campus which for 18 months has been sitting idle… that steps are taken immediately to ensure that the hospital comes into operation.”

According to him, all over the world the best hospitals one can get are the teaching hospitals of universities that are run by the universities though government owns them.

“Only the specialist can run a teaching hospital in a specialist manner put aside any political consideration that hospital is run as a university teaching hospital but not an appendage of any ministry,” he said.

His comments further follow huge public outcry that greeted government’s slow pace in ensuring the facility, which has been idle for several months after construction, begins operations

Meanwhile, a deputy Information Minister, Perry Okudzeto, has revealed that the University of Ghana Medical Centre will soon open for full operation.

According to him, a team led by Dr.Asamoah Baah has been commissioned to liaise with the contractor responsible for the completion of the facility to make sure that equipment are tested and in good condition, as well as staff recruitment.

Mr Okudzeto termed the brouhaha surrounding the opening of the medical centre as a sheer co-incidence.

“At the beginning of the year, a technical committee was set up by the Chief of Staff, Frema Opare. The hospital belongs to government so there should not be any issue with respect to who manages the hospital,” he said.