Three state-of-the-art cardiology centres are being built at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, and the Tamale Teaching Hospital, in a move designed to expand Ghana’s capacity for cardiology and vascular care beyond its current narrow base.
The construction, being undertaken by the Ghana Medical Trust Fund in partnership with the Ministry of Health, was disclosed by Trust Fund Administrator, Obuobia Darko-Opoku at the Government Accountability Series on Monday.
She said the three locations had been chosen strategically to ensure that specialist cardiac care was no longer confined to only one or two facilities in the country.
Each centre will be equipped with catheterisation laboratories, hybrid theatres, recovery wards, intensive care units, consulting rooms, dedicated oxygen systems, on-site pharmacies, and investigation laboratories, making them capable of handling a wide range of complex cardiac and vascular procedures.
The construction comes on the back of a nationwide needs assessment the Trust Fund conducted across 21 facilities, including six teaching hospitals and nine regional and referral hospitals.
The findings painted a stark picture of how thinly Ghana’s specialist care infrastructure is spread. Across all 21 facilities, there were only two MRI machines and five mammogram machines.
The entire northern sector of the country had just two practicing cardiologists serving millions of people.
In the whole of the public sector, there were only two radiotherapy machines, with one additional machine in the private sector, all located in Accra and Kumasi.
Madam Darko-Opoku said the assessment had exposed the severity of the inequalities in access to specialised care across the country and was now guiding the Trust Fund’s nationwide intervention programme.
Beyond the cardiology centres, the fund had already facilitated the distribution of dialysis machines, ICU beds, and patient monitors to the Sunyani Teaching Hospital, Holy Family Hospital in Techiman, and the Volta Regional Hospital in Hohoe.
She said the Trust Fund’s vision went further, with plans to establish comprehensive cancer centres capable of delivering integrated diagnostics, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and cutting-edge technologies including Gamma Knife systems, starting with the Ridge Hospital as the first site.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
