By Isaac Arkoh
Cape Coast, Aug. 3, GNA – The Management of Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH) has expressed concern over the wanton erection of illegal structures on its lands.
It said the unauthorized development was a hindrance to future expansion works in its quest to become a world-class leader in tertiary health care, medical education and research.
As a deterrent, Dr. Eric Kofi Ngyedu, Chief Executive Officer of CCTH, said management had prosecuted some illegal developers while others were in court and cautioned encroachers to desist from the act or risk having their property demolished.
He indicated that it had a legal title to the more than 200 acres land acquired by the Government of Ghana through an Executive Instrument, (E.I 2002) for the construction of a hospital and other ancillary structures.
Dr Ngyedu disclosed this at a media engagement on Wednesday as part of activities marking the 25th anniversary celebration of the facility.
The year-long anniversary on the theme: “25 years of quality healthcare: Repositioning for excellence,” climaxes on Wednesday, September 20 with a grand durbar.
Major events will include donation to special homes, lecture series, open day, fun games, health walk, blood donation campaign and a drama night.
Dr Ngyedu highly praised stakeholders for nearly three decades of remarkable contributions in bringing quality health care to all.
Being a public tertiary healthcare facility, he said the facility served the accident and emergency needs of commuters plying the Accra-Abidjan corridor road and Cape Coast-Kumasi highway due to its strategic position.
It is a referral hospital serving the Central, Western, Western North and Greater Accra Regions.
To address congestion, the management had constructed a Polyclinic to deal with minor and non- emergency cases to ease the burden on the hospital of such cases.
Outlining the hospital, Dr. Ngyedu said the facility was upgraded from a Regional Hospital to a Teaching Hospital in 2014 with an increase in bed capacity to 400.
Before that, he said the University of Cape Coast established the School of Medical Sciences to serve as the main facility for the teaching of medical students.
Though the facility operates efficiently, Dr. Ngyedu acknowledged that it was wrought with a myriad of challenges, including aging infrastructure, equipment, absence of a neonatal intensive care unit, high institutional and maternal and neonatal moralities, overcrowding and inadequate space at the accident and emergency units.
Others are the absence of a magnetic resonance imaging machine, inadequate human resources in some units, inadequate funding against delays in NHIS reimbursements, inadequate staff accommodation, inadequate and old vehicles and the rising cost of the units.
All the same, he assured Management would continue to provide quality services to the people of Cape Coast and beyond; employing the services of a well-trained, skilled, committed, and motivated workforce, evidence-based practice, and cutting-edge technology.
It will improve access to specialist and sub-specialist of services, intensify, clinical care nursing services, and expand drug and non-drug consumables and commodity base, while deepening institutional public health interventions, technology, and infrastructure.
Later, Dr. Ngyedu led the management of the Hospital together with some journalists to inspect some ongoing construction works, including a new Accident and Emergency and Trauma Centre, and Neonatal Intensive Care Centre.
Others are the Infectious Disease Centre, Eye Centre, Oncology Centre (Radiation Oncology), Renal Centre, staff accommodation, and a relative hostel building being built under Public, Private Partnership.
They also visited the newly installed Diagnostic Centre.
GNA