Health Minister assures resolution of E-Health system disruption, promises nationwide restoration within four weeks

 

The Minister for Health and Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has assured Ghanaians that government is taking immediate steps to resolve contractual and technical challenges with Lightwave eHealthcare Solutions Limited, the Ghanaian-owned company behind the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), the digital backbone of the country’s National E-Health infrastructure.

His assurance follows the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) announcement on October 26 about a temporary disruption that has affected some electronic hospital management systems nationwide. The situation has caused widespread delays in record-keeping and patient processing, particularly in the Ashanti Region, where many hospitals have resorted to manual systems.

Addressing Parliament, Hon. Mintah Akandoh revealed that the challenges were inherited from a previous arrangement under which Ghana’s medical records were hosted externally by a private vendor.

“Mr. Speaker, the vendor indicated that in the agreement he doesn’t want to hear anything about data. Mr. Speaker, the vendor again indicated that we should write as part of the contract that we the Ministry have verified 461 instead of 450, Mr. Speaker, there and then as ministry we had to put our heads together to find solution to the matter than lamenting.”

The Minister emphasized that the Ministry has already devised a comprehensive recovery plan to ensure full restoration of services. He further noted that the government is committed to preventing a recurrence of such disruptions.

The restoration plan, according to him, marks a critical step toward securing Ghana’s medical data sovereignty and ensuring uninterrupted healthcare delivery across the country.

“Honourable members, the good news is that I’ve shared with you the challenges we have inherited where the medical records, the electronic medical records was being hosted by an individual where the country didn’t have access to our service but at the moment, Mr. Speaker, we have the solution and we are rolling out in the whole country, we have a four-week plan. In the first one week, we’re rolling more than 100 facilities and Mr Speaker I can assure you with the shortest possible time we’ll get all these 450 facilities covered.

“Mr Speaker what this vendor was doing to the state was that as and when he demands what, then he will switch that thing off. Mr Speaker for your information  the server doesn’t even sit in Ghana it’s far away in India.

“We are religiously guided by this contract and we’ll put in place the necessary solutions so that we will prevent the reoccurrence of the mess we have inherited.”

He announced that the Ministry will on Wednesday provide a detailed presentation, supported by pictorial evidence, outlining the full extent of the challenges and the measures being implemented to strengthen Ghana’s e-health infrastructure.

“Mr. Speaker, tomorrow as I’ve already indicated, we will give a full presentation on these issues, pictorial evidences, and we will also tell the people of this country what we are going to roll out.”

Source: Elvisanokyenews.net