Accra, Sept. 16, GNA - The Police Hospital is to be redeveloped into an ultra modern health facility under a 23.7 million Euro grant contract between the Ministry of Interior and the International Hospitals Group (IHG) of the United Kingdom.

The agreement to this effect was signed between the two parties in Accra on Tuesday by Mr Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, Minister of the Interior and Mr Brian McGibbon, Director of Projects, IHG.

The Group expects to source the funds within the shortest possible time for work to begin on the first phase of the 24-month project before the end of this year.

Under the project, the Group will finance, design, manage, construct, equip and commission new buildings and facilities to develop the Hospital into a modern high quality healthcare facility. Mr McGibbon said the first phase of the project would involve the construction of two major buildings.

One of the structures, a three storey building, would house the accident and emergency centre, out patient's department, a magnetic resonance imaging and CT and an operating theatre suite including three main theatres with one orthopaedic theatre and an endoscopic unit. The rest are an intensive care unit and a central sterile stores department. The second structure would also house a 106-bed ward block with a mix of four, two and single bedrooms.

Mr McGibbon said the project would make room for a new main entrance to the Hospital as well as provide other infrastructure while a refurbished existing outpatient department would provide a nurses training facility, library and accommodation for medical records. The IHG Director said the Group, which was involved in the redevelopment of the Brong Ahafo Regional Hospital into a modern facility, would maximize Ghanaian input to provide among others employment in the country.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the Ministry expects the hospital to be upgraded to the level of the 37-military hospital to complement government's efforts to meet health care needs of the country. He said in several instances, the two hospitals had come to the aid of the general public by taking in more cases when medical practitioners in public sector had gone on strike.

The Minister said he hoped the Hospital would be in a position to provide excellent service for the police staff and their families, the fire, prisons and immigration officers as well as inmates of the prisons and the general public.

Mr Owusu-Agyemang said the second phase of the project would provide facilities for the specialized fields such as gynaecology and paediatrics departments.

Present at the ceremony was Nana Stephen Owusu Nsiah, the Inspector-General of Police.