Parliament on Friday approved of a two separate loan facility totalling €89.9 million for the design, construction, equipping and furnishing of five new districts or general hospitals in the Eastern, Northern and Volta regions.
They will be sited at Somanya in the Eastern Region; Buipe, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Tolon in the Northern Region; Wheta in the Volta Region, and a polyclinic at Bamboi.
The locations of the new hospitals that are to be constructed were questioned by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Yagaba/Kubori in the Northern Region, Ussif Mustapha, who said that the locations were intentionally selected to benefit people in an enclave where the president comes from.
He said he does not understand why Buipe, Sawla-Tuna-Kalba and Bamboi, which are all in the same traditional area in the Northern Region where the president comes from should be selected, while certain deprived areas like Moaduri District or the Yagaba/Kubori, which is also in the Northern Region and badly needs a hospital to serve the people in the area was not selected.
He said the districts and towns were carefully selected to benefit some people in one traditional area, and that, he said, is not fair to some deprived areas in the Northern Region which do not have health facilities.
The concern of the Yagaba/Kubori MP was challenged by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Damango, Mutawakilu Adam, who said the Yagaba/Kubori MP was trying to be tribalistic, adding that when the president disclosed that 10 polyclinics were to be constructed in the Central Region, “why did he not complain?”
He stressed that the president is the president for all Ghanaians and will gradually address the needs of Ghanaians.
A number of loan agreements totalling more than $150 million were equally laid in parliament for approval on Friday because parliament was expected to rise and as usual on the day of rising, a number of loan agreements are piled up on MPs, forcing the House to sit deep into the night before rising.
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