Former Presidential Advisor on Health and former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has defended the progress made on the Afari Military Hospital project, insisting that the facility was about 97 per cent complete before the change of government.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM's Top Story, on the status of the hospital, Dr. Nsiah-Asare questioned the continued delay in operationalising the facility, arguing that only a few outstanding works and the installation of some specialised equipment remained when the previous NPP administration left office.

According to him, the hospital, which forms part of efforts to expand healthcare access in the Ashanti Region, was scheduled to be commissioned and operationalised in early 2025.

“Right now, that facility was about 96 to 97 per cent complete because the only things left were a few works to be done and the installation of equipment such as CT scan and MRI machines,” he stated.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare explained that the facility was designed to help ease the patient burden on the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and improve access to healthcare services for residents of the northern parts of the Ashanti Region and neighbouring regions.

His comments come amid growing public debate over the status of the Afari Military Hospital and concerns about why the facility has yet to begin full operations despite substantial investment in the project.

The former health advisor also questioned claims that significant additional funding would be required to make the hospital operational.

Responding to reports that hundreds of millions of cedis may be needed to complete the project, he maintained that the bulk of the infrastructure had already been completed and that some equipment had already been procured.

“I don't know who made that computation. The project itself is about a 118-million-dollar project. Some of the equipment that I did not see at the site when I visited had been stored in a warehouse in Tema, according to the contractor,” he said.

Dr. Nsiah-Asare further noted that major components of the facility, including a 250-bed hospital and a fully completed outpatient reception centre with capacity for about 300 patients, were already in place.

He questioned why the facility had not been operationalised despite its advanced stage of completion.

“What is left to be completed within a year? Even if there was anything to be done, it should have been completed by now. You have a hospital with 250 beds and an outpatient reception centre that is fully completed. Why can't we operationalise it now?” he asked.

He stressed that operationalising a hospital involves more than completing physical structures, as staffing, equipment installation and support systems must also be put in place. However, he maintained that the level of progress achieved before the transition of government should have allowed the facility to begin serving the public.