Former Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana, Emeritus Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah is pushing for the opening of the University of Ghana Medical School. According to him, steps must be taken immediately to ensure the hospital begins operations.

Speaking with Mike Eghan Snr on Conversations with Mike Eghan, Professor Addae Mensah says, teaching hospitals in universities are run by the university, 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 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 Center, which has been closed down to the public, with its state-of-the-art equipment wasting away.

He said “I would strongly advise that teaching hospital that has been built on Legon campus which for 18months has been sitting idle steps should be taken immediately to make sure 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 owned.

“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”.

His comments 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.