The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has debunked flatly, allegations that the healths projects started by the erstwhile John Mahama administration have been abandoned by the current government.
The President in his eighth COVID-19 address to the nation last Sunday hinted of plans to build 88 new health facilities in some districts as well as regional hospitals for the newly created regions.
The announcement led the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh to accuse the government of abandoning hospital projects started by the Mahama-led administration while urging the government to focus on completing the abandoned projects rather than starting new ones which have no budgetary allocations.
But the Minister of Health at a press briefing on Tuesday, April 28, 2020, said the government has never abandoned any health project started by the previous government.
“Government after assuming office in 2017, has never abandoned any health facility which was started by the previous government and I have to emphasize that government has never abandoned any health facility before assumption of office in 2017,” the Health Minister said.
Akufo-Addo hiding behind COVID-19 to launch election 2020 campaign – Akandoh
Meanwhile, the Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has also accused President Nana Akufo-Addo of using the COVID-19 national addresses to launch his campaign ahead of the general elections.
“What I have realised is that His Excellency the President is hiding behind the update of COVID-19 to launch his campaign. These are campaign promises. But we know that when it comes to campaign promises, the President has a certain history. A lot of people would not trust him on campaign promises therefore if you confuse the two, i.e campaign messages and updates on COVID-19, then are not trying to bring everybody on board for the fight against COVID-19,” he insisted.
Completing abandoned hospitals more pressing – Africa Centre for Health Policy
The Africa Centre for Health Policy (ACeHP) has also advised the government to complete abandoned health projects before constructing new ones.
The Executive Director of the Centre, Ahmed Farhan in a Citi News interview noted that “Though we have had a backlog of uncompleted or completed but not commissioned health facilities, we still have a vacuum created by the nonexistence of some of these facilities. If we have this number of facilities coming on board, it will augment the situation.”
But in the short term, he indicated that “the issue is that once you have facilities that are uncompleted, it will be appropriate that we go back and look at those.”
