Addison acknowledges Amissah-Arthur, Wampah, Issahaku at opening of the Bank Hospital

Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) Dr Ernest Addison has officially opened the Bank Hospital belonging to the central bank.

He opened the facility on Thursday July 8.

Dr Addison stated that on April 2018, the hospital was finally handed over to the Management of the Bank with some critical outstanding issues relating to substantial IT-related matters, architectural finishes, as well as electrical, mechanical, and biomedical installations.

While the technical team was working with the contractor to resolve all the outstanding issues and the training of staff on these installations, he said, an Implementation Committee was set up to help with the operationalization of the hospital following the recommendations of the Blueprint Committee.

“In as much as we acknowledged the usefulness of these ongoing projects to support health care and recreational facilities of bank staff, the Board and the Management recognized the conflicting roles in pursuing the core mandate of the Bank, which is to ensure price and financial stability to foster growth, and effectively managing a hospital.

“Consequently, the Board and Management decided to carefully craft a path that would ensure sustainably managing this Hospital to best serve the interest of the Bank and the country at large. Therefore, the Board, having recognized that the Bank lacked the expertise to effectively manage a hospital complex, initiated a process to partner the private sector to effectively and sustainably manage The Bank Hospital,” he stated.

On the Business model guiding the operations of a hospital, he said, the implementation Committee recommended that The Bank Hospital should be set up as a commercial entity operating as a general hospital, to provide world-class OPD services, diagnostic services, and medical urology. The Committee recommended that the Hospital needed to be operated via a multi-disciplinary teamwork approach with the clinical business units at the OPD being allowed to generate its own income to meet some of its operational costs. Based on these considerations, the Bank of Ghana Board and Management opted for the Management Model of over 3-5 years.

“In line with the recommendations, the Bank appointed a sub-Committee of the Board of Directors to oversee the tendering process. Given the complex nature of the services being sought by the Bank, the Committee conducted a two-staged tender process to select a partner with the necessary level of technical capacity to operate a 65-bed, multispeciality hospital as well as the financial proposal most advantageous to the Bank. Phase 1 of the Tender Process focused on the technical capacity of the bidding parties. From nine bidders, the Committee selected four parties, who demonstrated the necessary technical ability. These four parties were invited to attend separate meetings at the Bank Hospital in Accra, providing a further opportunity to gather information from the bidding party.

“Going into Phase 2 of the Tender Process, the four shortlisted bidders were provided with an updated RFP requesting more detailed technical information as well as a highly detailed financial proposal and model. After going through a lengthy selection process, Halcom Management Services (HMS) of South Africa was appointed by the Bank to manage the Hospital on behalf of the Bank. And subsequently, the Committee commenced detailed due diligence of the counterparty ahead of final negotiations. Subsequently, the Bank appointed a transaction lawyer to help with the negotiation process.”

“Let me take this opportunity, therefore, to specially acknowledge the then Governor, the late Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, who begun this whole process, and then Governors Dr. Henry Wampah and Dr. Issahaku Nashiru, who successfully steered, implemented, and executed the Hospital Project to the state in which the new management met".

“I also want to acknowledge the various Committee members and the entire team who worked tirelessly with a dedication to accomplish the task. Today, only a few of the core members of the Committee are still at post but to those who have left the service of the Bank, we all say a big thank you’ for the instrumental roles each of you played in executing this project.”