By Issah Olegor
The long-awaited commissioning of the Weija Paediatric Hospital has hit another hurdle, with the Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, attributing the delay to the contractor’s failure to complete outstanding works and formally hand over the facility to the Ministry of Health.
Responding to concerns in Parliament on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, the Health Minister dismissed suggestions that the government was deliberately delaying the opening of the specialist children’s hospital, insisting that the facility has not yet met all contractual requirements needed for operational takeover.
According to Akandoh, although significant progress has been made on the project, the contractor is yet to complete critical outstanding works, making it impossible for the Ministry to officially assume control and begin healthcare services.
He stressed that the government has already completed preparations for the hospital’s operations and has assembled the full complement of health professionals required to run the facility immediately after the project is handed over.
“We have on standby the full complement of staff for the facility,” the Minister told Parliament.
The Weija Paediatric Hospital is expected to become one of the key specialist healthcare facilities dedicated to child healthcare, helping to ease pressure on existing paediatric units, particularly at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, while improving access to specialised medical services for children in the Greater Accra Region and beyond.
The Minister revealed that the Ministry has held several engagements with the contractor to resolve the outstanding issues delaying the commissioning of the project.
According to him, a crucial meeting has been scheduled for Thursday, July 10, after the contractor requested to personally participate in discussions aimed at concluding the remaining contractual matters.
“The contractor is not in the country at the moment. We have invited him and on the 10th was his request that he would be available personally for us to conclude on the matters,” Akandoh explained.
The Health Minister further disclosed that while some medical equipment has already been installed at the facility, several essential installations remain incomplete.
He also revealed that access to some of the equipment already installed has become a challenge because the contractor has not provided the Ministry with the required operational access codes.
According to him, when officials from the Ghana Health Service visited the facility to prepare for operations, they discovered that some equipment had not been installed, while others could not be fully accessed due to the absence of the necessary technical authorisations.
“When we send the Ghana Health Service staff to the facility, there are equipment that have not been installed and there are others that have been installed but we don’t have complete access and the project has not been handed over to the Ministry,” he stated.
Akandoh assured Parliament that the Ministry remains committed to resolving all outstanding issues with the contractor to ensure the hospital begins operations without further unnecessary delays.
He maintained that the government is fully prepared to commission the hospital immediately after the official handover, stressing that there would be no need for elaborate ceremonies before opening the facility to patients.
“If the project is handed over this morning, in the next 24 hours, we don’t even need to do any fanfare, we will commission the project because we have a full complement of staffing for that particular facility,” the Minister assured.
The Minister also rejected claims that the hospital has been fully completed and is merely awaiting a ceremonial commissioning by the government.
He explained that before any public healthcare facility can begin operations, contractors must fulfil all contractual obligations, complete equipment installation, provide unrestricted access to installed systems and officially transfer the project to the Ministry of Health.
According to him, only after these processes have been completed can the government legally operationalise the hospital and begin delivering healthcare services to the public.
The Weija Paediatric Hospital has been one of several health infrastructure projects expected to strengthen Ghana’s healthcare delivery system by expanding specialist services for children.
