Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, College of Health Sciences management board and provost have made a donation of GH₵ 125,000 to the HEAL Komfo Anokye Project.
The HEAL KATH Project aims at renovating the 70-year-old Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
KNUST intends to supply its specialized skilled professionals at its Faculty of Built Environment to assist with the ongoing renovation project.
Experts from architecture, quantity surveying, engineering, and biomedical sciences at the KNUST will be actively involved in the project.
Provost of Health Sciences, Professor Christian Agyare says KATH, serving as a teaching hospital for nearly 50 years, has been instrumental to the clinical training of approximately 95 percent of KNUST's health sciences students.
“Since the hospital was converted into a teaching hospital nearly 50 years ago, we have been training our students here, in their clinical. About 95 percent of our students requiring clinical are trained here. So there's a need for us to contribute. The provision of technical support for the ongoing project is in recognition of the longstanding relationship between the two institutions.
“It's not only a cash donation. We have also been providing the expertise that is needed in the form of expertise from our built environment faculty. Architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, and biomedical scientists support this project. We are entreating the public to support the project. So we can fully utilize this facility,” he said.
The Heal Komfo Anokye project, launched by the Asantehene, has a target of raising $10 million to renovate Blocks A, B, C and D of the hospital in two years.
The estimated completion of the HEAL Komfo Anokye Project will be extended from 24 months to 36 months.
This is due to functional constraints as the Hospital remains in operation, affecting the speed of the ongoing renovation works.
Chairman of the HEAL Komfo Anokye Project, Samuel Adu Boakye, appreciating the gesture by KNUST, disclosed that 4 million dollars have been raised in five months to support the renovation.
He says commitment to the project remains unwavering, with the support from the public.
“One constraint of the Heal KATH project is that the hospital is still in operation. If we had the opportunity, we would have had one block, with work seriously ongoing. However, we can't have it like that.
“Generally, what is left is more than what is to be done. Because of this, the 24-month estimations we projected have been moved to 36 months. However we are committed especially to the kind of support Ghanaians have exhibited,” he said.
