Former Deputy Health Minister and Akim Oda MP Alexander Akwasi Acquah has questioned Ghana’s health financing model.
He is warning that the country cannot afford to shut the door on donor support while hospitals are already under strain.
Speaking on PM Express on Monday, the member of Parliament’s Health Committee said the debate has become more urgent following Ghana’s rejection of a US health deal.
“Well, currently, I would say no, we just have to do something about it.”
He said his experience as a former Deputy Health Minister exposed deep contradictions in the system.
“Because even though I was in my former position as the Deputy Minister, I could not come to terms with the fact that we had aid in terms of logistics from foreign partners, and we could not just clear them from the ports.”
He said that raised a fundamental question about the country’s readiness to move away from aid.
“You remember that big story, so even if the aid that is coming, we still want to take taxes on them to support our budgets, and now we say we want to win ourselves totally from them. How do we survive?”
Mr Acquah said international support remains important even under Africa’s financing commitments.
“I mean this 15% declaration by the Abuja declaration still demanded that there’s that level of support from developed countries, developed partners.”
He argued that Ghana must urgently confront waste in the public sector.
“And so kindly, we just have to buy the bullet. And like Dr Nii Moi Thompson said, we may have to look into our systems and cut off all the waste, because there, there is a lot of waste within our public sector.”
According to him, the health sector has become especially vulnerable because of years of dependence on donor-backed programmes.
“You cannot take away the health sector, you know, because most often than not, we have relied on aid. It’s become one of the major motivations.”
He said the pressure is already visible.
“I’m telling you, the health sector is suffering, because I know what is happening, especially when the USA and others got cut off.”
Mr Acquah said recent engagements with the Ghana Health Service pointed to difficult months ahead if financing gaps are not addressed.
“Very recently, I think about a month or so, we met the Ghana Health Service boss and their agencies and all the program managers in their presentation gave us an indication of what is ahead if we do not sit up to look at the finance and health financing.”
He said Ghana still has a window to act.
“I thank God, it’s only the US that is playing this kind of game with us. There are some other donor agencies that are still with us, you know, and so it gives us an opportunity to start looking beyond it. And let’s look at our source.”
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