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The Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee Augustine Collins Ntim has promised to ensure that funding is made available to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) to complete that abandon maternity block.

According to Augustine Collins Ntim Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital which is the second largest health facility in Ghana remains a strategic asset in the delivering health in Ghana and must be equipped to deliver first class health care to the citizens.

Speaking to an Accra based radio station, Joy FM after the premiering of its impact driven documentary ‘Next to Die’ which highlighted challenges pregnant women in labour go through at the Okomfo Anokye hospital in the Ashanti Region, he said, his Committee would collaborate with the Health Ministry and management of the Hospital to raise the needed capital to complete the project.

“There has been some allocation but unfortunately those monies have not gotten to the hospital for it to be used for what is meant for. Now we are in the helm of affairs and fortunately Komfo Anokye Hospital is till strategic in delivering health care to Ghanaians in terms of location. I can assure that within the next three to four years we are going to make sure that any resources that will, be needed for the completion of the project would be made available.”

“We as a committee in parliament in charge of health will work with the health minister and his ministry to allocate the funding but even if we have get external funding. My understanding is that the project would require some ¢80 million to complete,” he added.

The documentary which aired cross the multi-media platforms in the country yesterday, revealed that about 10 babies averagely died daily at the country’s second largest hospital which is located in Kumasi.

The situation has been complicated by the absence of adequate rooms to accommodate the many pregnant women at the maternity ward at the hospital.

A new maternity ward started in 1974 by the Kutu Acheampong government to address the issue has been abandoned by successive governments.

The Parliamentary Health Committee Chairman promised to work towards the completion of the maternity ward of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) which work was been halted for the past 40 years.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Offinso North in the Ashanti Region who registered his worry about the development, said his attention has been drawn to similar abandoned projects, about 319 in number, which had started as far back as during the Guggisberg government.