Lawyer for Awerco Construction Limited, Yaw Acquah, has claimed that the Weija-Gbawe Children’s Hospital would have already been operational if the Ministry of Health had followed through on earlier plans to open the facility.

Speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, he expressed frustration over what he described as inconsistent communication from the ministry regarding the operationalisation of the specialist hospital.

According to him, the project had reached a stage where children should already have been benefiting from the facility by the end of the month.

“By the end of this month, by now children should be using the hospital if we had gone according to plan,” he stated.

Mr Acquah explained that financial arrangements between contractors and government are common and should not prevent the hospital from beginning operations.

“In Ghana, we have a lot of arrangements about contracting with the government because it is not always the government can pay upfront when it comes to certain arrangements with payment,” he said.

He stressed that the urgent need now is to operationalise the facility to prevent expensive medical equipment from deteriorating and to begin training staff for the specialist services the hospital is expected to provide.

“It is important we open the hospital immediately because there are machines there which are going to waste. You need training for staff for the facility because it is a specialist hospital and not just a general hospital,” he explained.

“So money for our clients should not be the biggest obstacle now.”

The lawyer further accused the Ministry of Health of backtracking after initially indicating that the hospital would soon be operational.

“The biggest obstacle was that the Health Minister said he was going to operationalise the hospital but in a few days’ time, he changed his mind, and there was a different communication,” he alleged.

“It has made the whole waters muddy.”

Mr Acquah also urged authorities to remain consistent in their engagements with the contractor and its representatives in order to avoid further delays.

“When they come up with a plan, when they ask to meet us, when they ask to meet our representatives, they stick to the plan,” he said.

The Weija-Gbawe Children’s Hospital project has been at the centre of public discussion in recent weeks amid concerns over delays in opening the facility despite the completion of major construction works.

Meanwhile, the World Bank has urged the government to expedite the operationalisation and opening of the facility, stressing that the multi-million-dollar project was constructed to strengthen healthcare delivery system, particularly for children.