Member of Parliament (MP) for Nabdam in the Upper East region, Mr Mark Kurt Nawaane, has attributed the shortage of essential equipment in hospitals to the government's misallocation of resources earmarked for the healthcare system.
In an interview on JoyNews' AM Show on February 1, Mr Nawaane expressed his disappointment, stating, “If you look at the amount of money that comes into the health sector in a year, we should be doing better than this, and I blame everybody, including the politicians, including the technocrats who are supposed to advise the politicians and probably the whole country, because we start certain things and we do not ask questions; we are just happy we started them.”
His comments were in response to the “Sick Hospitals” documentary by JoyNews, which highlighted the insufficient equipment at Effia Nkwanta Hospital, including the absence of a defibrillator.
Mr Nawaane emphasized that the persisting issues in the health sector were a result of a lack of transparency and accountability in the utilization of health sector funds.
On the same show, Deputy Ranking Member of the Health Committee in Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, pointed fingers at the government's ambitious Agenda 111 hospital initiative. He argued that despite spending $200 million on the initiative, not a single hospital bed has been added to existing hospitals.
“Since we started, we spent almost $200 million on Agenda 111, and we have not added a single bed in terms of the number of beds in the country. We have not been able to do that, so we ask ourselves, what are our aims? What do we want to solve?” Mr. Akandoh questioned.
He further asserted that the money could have been better utilized to enhance existing hospitals, ensuring they have the necessary facilities and resources. “As a nation, honestly speaking, we are not putting our priorities right. We are simply getting everything wrong, and we are applauding when we should be condemning. This is what is happening in the country in the health sector,” he concluded.