Presby Moderator Urges Mahama Government to Complete Agenda 111 Hospitals
Rt. Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye says completing the hospitals should be treated as a national development priority rather than a partisan political issue.
Seth Abanfo Essiam
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The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Rt. Rev. Dr Abraham Nana Opare Kwakye, has called on the government to complete hospitals under the Agenda 111 project initiated by the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking on Channel One TV’s Point of View with host Bernard Avle, Rt. Rev. Dr Opare Kwakye argued that expanding access to healthcare should transcend partisan politics because Ghanaians will ultimately be the beneficiaries of the facilities.
“We believe that this Agenda 111, which was started, for us, it is not about partisan politics. It’s about development of a nation,” he said.
“We believe that these hospitals must be completed. When they are completed, you and I, we will be the beneficiaries.”
The Presbyterian Moderator noted that churches and other faith-based organisations already play an important role in providing healthcare to communities across Ghana, but said their contribution alone was not enough to meet the country's healthcare needs.
“A number of our communities [are] provided with healthcare not by government, but by churches. But these are not enough. There is more to be done,” he said.
He therefore urged the government to build on existing healthcare investments rather than allow projects initiated under a previous administration to remain unfinished.
Rt. Rev. Dr Opare Kwakye pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a major lesson on the importance of developing a strong domestic healthcare system.
According to him, the pandemic demonstrated that even wealthy and influential Ghanaians who would ordinarily seek medical treatment abroad could suddenly find themselves dependent on the country's health facilities.
“Do not forget that during the time of COVID, all our big men, they could no longer travel outside Ghana for healthcare. They had to satisfy themselves with local healthcare,” he said.
He also highlighted the dangers faced by patients who have to travel long distances to access medical treatment, saying some people lose their lives while being transported from one location to another.
“Sometimes in travelling from one place to the other, people lose their lives. Why not do ourselves good by providing for ourselves?” he asked.
The Agenda 111 initiative was launched under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as an ambitious programme to expand healthcare infrastructure across the country, particularly in areas without adequate hospital facilities.
For the Moderator, the political origins of the programme should not determine its future. Instead, he believes completing viable hospitals would strengthen Ghana's healthcare system and ensure that investments already made ultimately benefit the population.