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Alex Segbefia has described as 'unfortunate' President Akufo-Addo's announcement of the construction of some district hospitals while updating Ghanaians on COVID-19.

"I think that it was an unfortunate statement to make at the time because I don’t think that is the platform to use to make such an announcement. This is an international platform, lots of people listen across the world as to what our President is going to say with regards to COVID-19. Hospitals that are going to be built in a year’s time are not the issue currently. We want to know what steps you are taking to deal with COVID-19, and so to use that platform to make a political statement is unfortunate," he opined.

The Former Minister for Health further indicated in an interview on Neat FM's 'Me Man Nti' programme that there was no need for the President to reiterate the construction of the 88 district hospitals because it was already in the manifesto of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

"He didn’t say anything that was not in the manifesto of the NPP . . . it’s already in the manifesto so what was the point of saying it now?" he queried.

Meanwhile, he believes it is not feasible to construct 88 district hospitals acroos the country in a year.

"We all want hospitals but to do it in a year, it will be right to say that based on the historical facts on how we build our hospitals in this country, it will not be possible to build 94 hospitals in one year. For him to give such timeline smacks of politics," he added.

Listen to him in the video below




Background

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced plans to construct 88 new district hospitals and six new regional hospitals within a year.

In his eighth address to the nation on the coronavirus pandemic, he indicated that there are 88 districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have five infectious disease control centres dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this”

While this move has been highly commended due to the infrastructure deficit in the health sector, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) thinks it is an attempt to solicit for votes from Ghanaians and secure a second term for the Akufo-Addo-led administration.