The National Democratic Congress’ presidential candidate, John Mahama says an NDC administration led by him will build a ‘hospital ship’ if elected into office in 2021.
Named ‘Onipa nua’, the former president said the move is part of the his party’s plan to improve health care and provide easy access to quality and efficient health services to Ghanaians regardless of their location in the country.
“We will build a new ‘Onipa Nua’ Hospital Ship and deploy it to provide medical services to the inaccessible riverine and fishing communities on the inland Volta waterways,” Mr Mahama said during his Facebook Live series Thursday.
He criticised the Akufo-Addo administration for failing to make good use of the ‘Onuado’ Mobile Vans his administration procured in 2014.
The specialised vans were designed for general medicine, ophthalmology, dentistry and audiology assessment and were meant to bridge the gap between urban and rural healthcare.
They were to serve some 46 districts across the country.
Since the NDC left power, however, the fleet of vans have been abandoned at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Mr Mahama says he intends to rehabilitate and expand the number of mobile clinics and make them available in all the 16 regions of the country.
This he said, is to ensure that “we can take healthcare to the doorsteps of all our people, even in the remotest parts of our country.”
The former president said the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has shown that a strong health care system is vital for any country.
He added that the provision of modern, well equipped health facilities with motivated staff will make it easier every Ghanaian to access quality healthcare and his party intends to do just that.
“The NDC party I lead has demonstrated over and over again that it does not talk, it delivers. We are guided by deeds and action and not talk.”
He touted his government’s achievement in delivering state of the art district and regional hospitals, polyclinics, health centres and CHPS compounds.
“Evidence of our delivery abounds all over the country. If given the opportunity again, by the grace of God and the will of the Ghanaian people, we will continue our aggressive roll out of social infrastructure, making sure that every region has a modern regional hospital and each district has a modern hospital facility depending on the demographic and population of its catchment area,” he stated.
