[ 2021-02-17 ]

44-year-old uncompleted KATH maternity block to be demolished for redevelopment
The Maternity and Children’s Block of the Komfo
Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in the Ashanti
Region is set to be pulled down to allow for the
construction of an entirely new edifice.

The is because the facility which has been
abandoned for 44 years failed to meet the
structural integrity test after an assessment by
the construction firm tasked to ensure its
completion.

President Akufo-Addo in May 2020 cut the sod for
the construction of the project and gave a
completion deadline of 36-months.

The construction and completion of the project
will be funded by the Deutsche Bank in Germany at
a cost of €155 million.

Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah who
spoke on Kumasi-based Abusua FM confirmed that the
decision to pull down the facility is based on the
final report by the construction firm, Contract,
after its assessment of the whole structure.

“The construction firm proposed that the
building should be demolished and re-constructed
entirely after it conducted a structural integrity
test on the facility. The proposal was tabled
before authorities and a decision to pull down the
building was arrived at. This is necessary because
it is good to do the right thing since one does
not know what could happen in the future should
the contractor go-ahead to continue with the
project. So it is true that the facility will be
pulled down and reconstructed with new designs
altogether,” he explained

The Minister said a stakeholder consultation has
begun to sensitize the public especially people
who live close to the facility to get them to
cooperate with authorities when the demolishing of
the project starts.

He indicated that patients on are currently on
admission at the hospital will also be notified
about the demolishing exercise.

Mr. Osei Mensah added that the facility will be
pulled down after the public sensitization is
over.

A visit by Citi News to the construction site
revealed that bulldozers are stationed with a
portion of the facility already pulled down.

The area has also been barricaded with warning
signs erected to notify the public of the dangers
associated with getting close.

The project began in 1976, as part of the Komfo
Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) Expansion Project,
but came to a standstill in 1979.

Once completed, the Maternity and Children’s
Block will be a state-of-the-art, modern health
edifice, with paediatrics, gynaecology, and
obstetrics units.

It will serve as a referral centre for 12 of the
16 regions of Ghana.

It will be a 750-bed building, with outpatient
areas for adults and children, and it will have 10
operating theatres and diagnostic rooms, fully
equipped with X-Ray, ultrasound, and mammography
facilities.

The facility will also house an intensive care
unit, a high dependency unit, isolation rooms, and
student lecture halls, with the capacity to
provide catering services for staff, patients, and
students.

Source - Citinewsroom

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