The Minister, who gave the assurance after touring the construction site, said he was impressed by the progress made since his last visit but stressed that more must be done to meet the deadline.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh says the La General Hospital project is on course for completion by the close of 2027, with commissioning targeted for January 2028 , but only if the contractor picks up the pace.
Impressive Progress, But Room for Improvement
Addressing journalists during the inspection, Mr. Akandoh said the government would keep a close eye on the project until it is fully delivered and serving patients.
“This is the first time we are coming here, all of you. We are not new to this project. And not until it is completed, commissioned and operationalized, we won’t stop coming here. We want to make sure that everything is going according to plan,” he said.
Acknowledging the visible strides on site — including work advanced to the last floor — the Minister nevertheless challenged the contractor to intensify efforts.
“I’ve gone round as far as to the last floor where they are at the moment. Yes, there’s quite an impressive development. But I’ve hinted them that I think that they are doing well, but they can do better. They can speed up so that we can beat the deadline,” he noted.
Mr. Akandoh underscored the significance of the facility, describing it as a critical health asset for a large population that has long gone without it. “This is a health facility in a very large catchment area, so without which the people in the area are suffering,” he said.
No Excuses Over Payments — Minister
Responding to suggestions that delayed payments were slowing down work, the Minister pushed back firmly, insisting the government has been meeting its financial commitments.
“I don’t think that there’s any issue or delay of payment. I mean, as for payment issues, the government is doing its best to pay them. As far as I recall, they have just brought their last IPCs. The last but one IPC has been paid. And they’ve just brought another one. We have worked on it. We’ve pushed through finance. So they cannot cite delay of payment as an excuse for any suspension or any delay,” he explained.
He further disclosed the financial details of the project: “My data infrastructure tells me the payment we have done so far is around 15 million euros. So the whole is denominated in euros. So 50 million euros and we paid about 15 million euros. But you see, it includes the hospital equipment.”
On the completion timeline, he stated: “The completion date, we are looking at the end of 2027. That’s the first quarter of 2028. By January, we should commission it. But that’s what I’m saying, that we can speed up to beat the deadline.”
Emergency Department to Be Reconfigured
A key outcome of the inspection was the Minister’s directive to consultants to redesign the hospital’s emergency department to expand its bed capacity — a move informed by nationwide challenges with emergency care.
Mr. Akandoh explained that many major hospitals routinely turn away emergency cases because of limited emergency beds, citing Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as an example.
“We have all realized that from time to time, some facilities turn patients away because they don’t have beds. And when they say beds, they are talking about the emergency beds. And we realize that a facility such as Korle Bu, for example, is more than 1,000 bed capacity. But the emergency is around 65 bed capacity,” he said.
Based on that experience, the Minister is advocating a benchmark where emergency beds make up a larger share of total bed capacity.
“So we thought that maybe it should be a minimum of about 10%. If you do 10%, you should have about 100 bed capacity at the emergency. So going forward, we have to look at that proportion very well. Because the population is actually increasing,” he added.
He said the consultants have been tasked to align the emergency unit’s capacity with the hospital’s overall bed complement. “So that’s what I was trying to draw their attention to. So they should reconfigure it and then correlate it to the total number of beds we have in this facility.”
The Minister noted that the contractor has indicated patients are not expected to spend more than 24 hours in the emergency unit, adding that the technical team would now work on the proposal.
“The technical people will put their heads together and do the work,” he concluded.
The Project Manager Richard Adadey said the project is only 35% work done and now that the contractor is on site, “we need to speedup work to complete the remaining 65% of work to be done.”
Mr. Adadey assured the people of La and its environs that work will progress steadily.