BY GRACE ZIGAH
President John Dramani Mahama is expected to cut sod in the coming weeks for the construction of three 160-bed Regional Referral Hospitals in the Oti, Savannah and Western North Regions, in what the government says is a major step towards addressing gaps in specialised healthcare delivery in the three relatively new regions.
This is in contrast to the six regional hospitals initiated under the Agenda 111 of the Akufo-Addo era for the six new regions.
The announcement was made by the Minister for Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, as he unveiled the proposed design for the Oti Regional Referral Hospital. The projects form part of the Mahama administration’s broader programme to expand health infrastructure and improve access to specialised and referral services.
The three facilities are expected to serve as referral centres for their respective regions, providing additional capacity for patients whose conditions require services beyond what district-level health facilities can offer.
The three regions were created as part of the regional reorganisation exercise. Oti was carved out of the Volta Region, Savannah from the Northern Region, and Western North from the Western Region.
The creation of the regions was intended to bring government services and development closer to residents, but the health infrastructure needed to support regional referral care has remained an important gap.
Consequently, patients requiring specialised treatment have often had to travel to larger regional or teaching hospitals outside their immediate administrative areas.
The planned sod-cutting ceremonies represent the next stage of a process announced earlier in the year.
In May 2026, President Mahama announced that government had commenced procurement processes for the construction of three new regional hospitals in three of the newly created regions.
The President said the objective was to improve healthcare outcomes by providing appropriate infrastructure in regions that had been operating without their own regional referral hospitals.
The government has now moved towards the construction stage, with the sod-cutting ceremonies expected to formally mark the beginning of work on the three facilities.
The government has also indicated that the three hospitals announced for Oti, Savannah and Western North form part of a wider plan rather than a standalone intervention.
