KATH children & maternity block abandoned for 44 yrs under demolishing

Government has given green light for demolishing of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital’s 44 years old abandoned Children and Maternity block to pave ways for the construction of a new building which design is yet to be made known to the public.

The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, on Friday, 15th May, 2020, cut the sod for the reactivation of work for the construction of the forty-four (44) year old Maternity and Children’s Block of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.

The project, which is being funded by German Bank, Deutsche Bank, will cost €155 million and is expected to be completed within 36 months, with the construction being undertaken by Contracta.

Once completed, the Maternity and Children’s Block will be a state-of-the-art, health edifice, with pediatrics, gynecology, and obstetrics units.

It will also serve as a referral centre for twelve (12) of the sixteen (16) regions of our country. It will be a seven hundred and fifty (750)-bed building, with outpatient areas for adults and children, and it will have ten (10) operating theatres and diagnostic rooms, fully equipped with X-Ray, ultrasound, and mammography facilities among others.

However, 10 months after the sod cutting, the government has received a structural integrity test report from ‘Contracta’ a construction firm responsible for the completion of the project has given them the green light to pull down the entire building.

According to Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah, the building failed structural integrity test which calls for total demolishing in the interest of the country to avoid future disaster.

“Currently we have launched stakeholder’s consultation on how best to bring the structure down without necessary coursing avoidable nuisance people who live around the structure. I mean the Arm forces basic school, the military, KATH staff and patience on admission,’’ he said.

He added that based on the report available to him, “the building will collapse in future if they ignore technical advice from the construction firm. Because of the weak nature of the building as at now.’’