Management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has reiterated that completing the Heal Komfo Anokye Project is essential to decongesting the facility and strengthening healthcare delivery.
The more than 50-year-old hospital serves as a major referral centre for patients from 12 of Ghana’s 16 regions and records over 1,300 outpatient visits daily, placing immense pressure on its wards, infrastructure and workforce.
As one of the country’s busiest tertiary health facilities, KATH continues to shoulder a heavy healthcare burden, a situation compounded by stalled hospital projects in the Ashanti Region and the absence of well-resourced peripheral hospitals to manage non-specialist cases.
Hospital management says the resulting congestion has pushed existing wards and healthcare personnel beyond their operational limits.
Chief Executive Officer of KATH, Dr. Paa Kwesi Baidoo, said despite rising demand for specialised services, successive governments have failed to adequately expand or upgrade the facility to meet current healthcare needs.
“The country has not done enough to expand and upgrade this facility. The support the hospital needs to meet its growing demand for specialised services has been largely inadequate,” he said.
Speaking at the launch of the hospital’s 70th anniversary celebrations on Tuesday, December 23, Dr. Baidoo renewed calls on government, corporate organisations and the general public to support the Heal Komfo Anokye Project.
He explained that the initiative seeks to rehabilitate ageing infrastructure, improve working conditions for staff and enhance the quality of care delivered to patients.
The Heal Komfo Anokye Project is an initiative spearheaded by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, to rehabilitate and modernise the ageing infrastructure of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
The project seeks to raise US$10 million to refurbish the hospital’s over 80-year-old buildings, which have deteriorated over time due to sustained pressure from heavy usage and years of limited maintenance.