A Democracy and Development Fellow on Public Health at CDD-Ghana, Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, has accused political actors of lip-servicing Ghanaians when it comes to the health sector.
In a Facebook post, the pharmacist tried to comprehend the reason politicians often ride on the back of the underdeveloped health sector of the country only to abandon it when voted into power.
“Why are we accepting less health outcomes for more investment per person? Why are our politicians paying lip service to health whilst using it as a voter cash cow?” he quizzed on Saturday.
Mr Asiedu’s outburst comes after his research revealed that Rwanda has done better than Ghana from 2017 to date in terms of health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, and survival to the age of 65 years.
According to him, this data discovered indicates that “all Ghanaians living today, 38% won’t live to see their 65th birthday. Breaking this down, 33.4% of females and 42.4% of males will pass away by age 65.”
He stressed that Rwanda has been able to achieve better results because the country has invested less in health per person with a health expenditure per capita of US$57.50 compared with Ghana’s US$84.98.
He further questioned “Does this health outcome suggest our democracy is yielding the dividend we except after 31 years?”