President John Evans Atta Mills has assured that the Central Regional Hospital in Cape Coast will be upgraded to a teaching hospital. This, he said, was to support the training of medical doctors at the University of Cape Coast School of Medical Sciences (UCCSMS). President Mills noted that the new hospital would include an auditorium and diagnostic centre, a teaching and learning centre, an office block and a pavilion. President Mills said this when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Cape Coast to climax the annual Fetu Afahye at the Victoria Park on Saturday. Hundreds of people, including local and foreign tourists, gathered at the durbar grounds hours before the arrival of the chiefs, being carried in their colourful palanquins, led by the paramount chief, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, and accompanied by the seven Asafo companies. President Atta Mills's entourage included the Minister for Trade and Industry, Ms Hannah Tetteh, the Central Regional Minister, Mrs Ama Benyiwa Doe, and the Member of Parliament for Cape Coast and Deputy Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Mr Ebo Barton Odro. Also present were the leader and flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo and his entourage. President Mills noted that the government's decision to support the UCCSMS was in response to a special appeal from the Dean to the presidency to ensure that students of the medical school did not have to travel to Korle Bu in-Accra or the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi for their clinical training. He said the government would help the UCCSMS to ensure that the school was adequately equipped to support in developing the manpower needs for the health sector. He also announced that the world football governing body, FIFA, was building a Centre of Hope in Cape Coast to help assist the youth in various sporting activities. President Mills called for unity in the area and the country as a whole, adding that conflicts were the recipe for underdevelopment. He gave the assurance that the government would keep faith with the people of Cape Coast and work to ensure that the development of the area was accelerated. The Regional Minister, in her address, said the Town Hall and some of the bridges in the metropolis, including the one at Bakano, had been rehabilitated and sanitary conditions in the metropolis and on the beaches improved significantly. Further, she said, the assembly had created land banks to ensure that interested investors had easy access to land and called on investors to come to the metropolis and invest. The MP, Mr Barton-Odro, pledged his commitment to improve the level and access to education in the area. In his welcoming address, Osabarima Kwesi Atta II, called for a review of the computerisation of the senior high school placement programme, adding that the current system was fraught with a lot of problems. He further asked that the policy that insisted on a quota for students in the catchment area of the various SHS facilities be implemented to enable more indigenes to get access to the SHS in their communities. He also called for the construction of a new market as promised by the NDC government and the completion of work on the Cape Coast Stadium project. Osabarima Atta also called for the dredging of the Fosu Lagoon. At the ceremony, President Mills presented sets of jersey and 10 footballs each to the Ebusua Dwarfs and Venomous Vipers Football clubs. Source: Daily Graphic