Former president John Dramani Mahama, has accused the governing New Patriotic Party of neglecting the Upper West Regional Hospital after its commissioning in August 2019.

Addressing a durbar of chiefs in Wa as part of his two-day working visit to the region, Mahama said the hospital, although in operation, is not operating at full capacity because it hasn’t been given seed capital to start operating.

He said the hospital is unable to effectively address the health needs of the residents due to the situation.

“I want to draw the president’s attention to the Upper West Regional Hospital. Since he commissioned it, the hospital has not been given seed money to operate fully and so it is not operating at full capacity. This is supposed to be the regional hospital. If they get the seed capital and are able to employ [people] to cover all the sections of the hospital, it will deliver good service to the people of this region,” John Mahama remarked.

He further urged the government to ensure that the hospital is provided with the needed resources to operate at full capacity, rather than commence new hospital projects.

“While we think about getting more hospitals, we must fully utilize the capacity that we have already,” he added.

The Paramount Chief of the Wa Traditional Area, Naa Fuseini Pelpuo IV last year, made a similar claim about the operationalization of the regional hospital.

But the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye refuted claims that the Upper West Regional Hospital is not fully functional.

“The hospital is fully functional with the exception of the radiological department, which is not fully functioning because of the CT scan. It is not easy to come by, but fortunately, we have a team who is going to train some personnel in the next two weeks, so they can get the CT scans working again… Every other department is working. Currently, the hospital has 14 doctors with three specialists,” he said.

The 160-bed capacity Upper West Regional Hospital was opened to the public on Thursday, January 9, 2020, after several months of delay.