All referrals to the newly opened University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) will be treated for free for the next two weeks, management has announced.
Chairman of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) Dr Anarfi Asamoah-Baah announced this at a short ceremony to open the facility on Wednesday.
The 650-bed facility built at a cost of $217 million will only attend to referrals, for now.
Twenty health workers are starting work with the number expected to shore up in the coming days.
Addressing journalists, a member of the IMC, Dr Darius Osei, who will act as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), appealed for patience on the part of the public as the medical facility is put in proper shape.
According to him, the buildings and equipment are not the only things needed to set up a facility.
Dr Osei said government is putting together a board, which will replace the IMC to manage affairs.
Already, Dr Osei noted, advertisements have been run to get a substantive CEO and other administrative staff for the health facility.
Though inaugurated in 2016 by former President John Dramani Mahama, UGMC has remained closed.
Attempts to open it in 2017 by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government stirred controversy over who owned the facility – the government or University of Ghana.
There was a one-man protest by Reginald Sekyi-Brown, whose gesture intensified public calls for the commissioning of the facility after he was arrested by police at an event attended by the First Lady.
READ: Presidential staffer justifies arrest of protester at First Lady event
“Please, don’t push us too much,” Dr Osei appealed to the public.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana