The Ministry of Health has been burdened with GHC 130 debt, a situation that has gotten stakeholders fearing it will impede the delivery of health services across the nation.
The development, according to the sector Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu is making it difficult for the Ministry and its agents to provide Ghanaians with essential services they require.
He told Joy FM, they underestimated the huge financial overhangs left behind by the John Mahama led-government.
“My Ministry alone is grappling with GHC 130 debt overhang, minus the other institutions and agencies. Health Insurance if you go there as we speak despite the fact that we’ve managed to reduce the arrears that they had about some three months and we effectively might have paid all the six months that we came in, we still have close to about GHC 900m. There are other consumables we’re running out of stocks. There are programmes they run for Malaria during some seasons in the North, DFID was helping us to fund that, but there has been some challenges and they same to have pulled out of that area and so if government doesn’t put in money for us to do that, we cannot fight it as we did last year. ”
Hon. Agyeman Manu added the Akufo Addo led-govenment is considering investment options to revive the National Health Scheme’s finances following complaints of service providers.
“The thinking is that we may need to find some good money to do one main investment into it to revamp it with some revolution, other than that we can be doing the monthly thing that we’ve been doing but then we may be moving slowly and gradually to be trying to clear the arrears before we can think of what new thing we can cover.”
Health Ministry ‘choked’ with GHC130m debt
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