Former President, John Dramani Mahama says the government should prioritize equipping already existing health facilities alongside building new ones.

“While we think about building more hospitals, we must quickly utilize the capacity that we have already. Because it will be a lack of prioritisation if you have a wholly built regional hospital with all equipment that you need there and yet you cannot operationalize it, yet prioritize the construction of new hospitals.”

Mr Mahama, who was speaking during his tour of the Upper West Region, noted that the Regional Hospital, since its commissioning, is unable to fully function due to inadequate funding for the facility.

He, therefore wants President Akufo-Addo to pay some attention to the facility, adding that there is a need to get the hospital a seed capital to enable it to reach its full potentials.

“I also 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’s not operating at full capacity," he said.

He noted that the facility, if fully operational, will provide good health care services to the people in the region.