The Minister-designate for Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, has indicated that the initial announcement by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to construct 88 district hospitals has been increased to 111 hospitals.

This, he said, has become necessary to cater for particularly the six new regions that have no regional hospitals, as well as other regions that were left out during the initial count.

President Akufo-Addo announced the construction of hospitals in some 88 districts across the country during his eighth address to the nation on what government had done in the fight against the coronavirus.

“There are 88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have five infectious disease control centers dotted across the country; and we do not have enough testing and isolation centers for diseases like coronavirus. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing 88 hospitals in the districts without hospitals,” he said.

But, answering a question on the cost of each hospital, during his appearance at the Parliament’s Appointments Committee, Agyeman Manu said that the new number of hospitals had changed to 111 to make up for other differences.

“The initial costing was done on the basis of averages and we were looking at between 5 and 7 million dollars for a hospital. When the issue of equipment and other logistics came in, we were still thinking that a maximum, $7million will do. If you multiply this by 88, and the 88 has even changed to 111. We’re adding on regional hospitals for regions that do not have regional hospitals, especially the six new ones plus the Western region. We are also rehabilitating the Effia-Nkwanta Hospital.

“This, together with other places we left out when we were counting the district hospitals that added up to 88, have brought this number to 111 at this moment, and that is what we are working on,” he said.

Kwaku Agyeman Manu was reappointed to the position of Health Minister by President Akufo-Addo on January 21, 2021.