Nangodi (U/E), The Chiefs and People of the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region, have expressed worry about the slow pace of construction work on the Agenda 111 hospital project in the area.
They said while other beneficiary districts including Bolgatanga East, Garu, Tempane and the Kassena-Nankana West had their projects at completion stages that of the Nabdam District was still at the foundation level.
They made these known at a news conference, jointly organised by the District Health Committee, Public Relations, and Complaint Committee, Traditional and Religious Leaders, the Youth and Women groups in the area.
Pognab Grace Bewong, the Paramount Queen Mother of the Sokoti Traditional Area, who is also the Chairperson of the District Health Committee, who read the statement on behalf of the group, said government had awarded the contract a time to a different contactor because the first one was slow.
She said the people were thankful to the government for changing to a different contractor for the project and were appealing for a speedy execution of the work to help address the health needs of the people in the area.
According to the group, the current hospital in the district did not have the capacity to provide the desired quality health services to the people in the area and as a result sick persons with complications had to be referred to the Regional hospital in Bolgatanga which is far from the District.
The Queen Mother indicated that prior to the beginning of the project, the citizens of the Nabdam Traditional Area were happy and voluntarily gave out 40 hectares of their farmlands for the project.
She stated that the District Health Committee and Public Relations and Complaint Committee had received many complaints from the Chiefs and people, the youth, and women groups in the District, demanding answers from duty bearers why other beneficiary Districts had their projects almost completed while that of the Nabdam District had not gone past the foundation level.
The Government Health Agenda 111 project which is a nationwide project to build Hospitals in districts that have none, is designed to have, Female Maternity ward, Male Medical and Surgery ward, Physiotherapy unit, Public Health Unit, morgue, residential facility.
The objective of the project is to deepen delivery of quality healthcare significantly at the district level, boost access to healthcare services for all citizens towards ensuring the attainment of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Three.
The group also called on the government to ensure that a billboard of the project was mounted at a vantage point, giving the direction to the project site for the purpose of accountability and transparency.
Mrs Agnes Anamoo, the District Chief Executive for the area in an interview, expressed optimism that the concerns raised by the group would be addressed by the government.
She commended the groups for not using any violent means to voice out their demands and said that showed a mark of maturity.
Source: Ghana News Agency