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The Information Ministry has stated that government has secured funds to construct the second phase of University of Ghana Medical Centre(UGMC).

The Minister of information, Mustapha Hamid has confirmed that from 19tth July Ghanaians will be able to access the medical facilities fully.

An interim board has been set to operationalise the $217 million University of Ghana Medical Centre as soon as possible.

In an interview on the Citi breakfast show, the Minister stated that Parliament would ratify the loan agreement in two weeks’ time.

“Right now we are hoping that in the next week or two maximum parliaments would have ratified the loan agreement and then we can go and access the money for phase two to begin. If you ask me to give and take by July date we are saying the facility would be operational we would have to access the money and begin working on phase two,” he said.

A student of the University of Ghana, Reginald Sekyi-Brown also began a social media campaign dubbed “Open UGMC Now” to force the government to open the facility.

He, however, run into trouble on Thursday after he tried interrupting a speech by the First Lady with a Placard.

Although the Police detained Reginald at Korle Bu where the First Lady cut the sod for the construction of a pediatric intensive care unit at the Korle Bu Teaching hospital, he was subsequently released.

Ghanaians start ‘Open UGMC’ campaign

A few weeks ago, some Ghanaians signed an online petition as part of a social media campaign to push the government to operationalise the 597-bed capacity University of Ghana Medical Center (UGMC).

The campaign was led by Reginald who argued that the hospital cannot continue to be ‘worshipped’ when the country’s health system is facing many challenges.

511 days after former President John Mahama commissioned the first phase of the University of Ghana Medical Center (UGMC), the government is yet to open the facility to the public, citing technical reasons.

Citi News gathered that the facility which was scheduled to open in November 2017, was kept locked to the public due to a tussle between the Minister of Health and the University of Ghana over who manages the $217 million facility.

After stating various reasons why the facility cannot open now and having all deadlines set to operationalise the facility expired, the facility is yet to be opened.

The last public comment about the state of the hospital was by the Minister of Health, Kweku Agyemang Manu in April.

While addressing stakeholders and practitioners in health during the 2018 Health Summit in Accra, he said the UGMC could not be opened due to uncertainties over the source of power supply.