Dr. Ekua Amoakoh
Deputy Spokesperson for the Bawumia Campaign, Dr Ekua Amoakoh, has questioned the Ministry of Health’s decision to replace the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) with the new Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS), demanding evidence of any audit report to justify the change.
Speaking on The AM Show on JoyNews, Dr Amoakoh said there is no public record of an audit or performance assessment that supports the Ministry’s claims of non-performance against LHIMS.
“I haven’t seen any audit report—just as Hamza said—so when you say non-performance, what exactly do you mean?” she asked. “Personally, I’ve worked with the LHIMS system, and I know what it can do. It just doesn’t add up.”
Dr Amoakoh, who previously worked at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital during the introduction of LHIMS, argued that the system was functioning effectively and nearing full national coverage before the contract was abruptly terminated.
“When it started with the teaching hospitals, I was one of the first people trained on the system. The company had reached about 70% coverage, and those not yet included were mostly smaller health centres,” she said.
She warned that switching to a new platform managed by different vendors could undermine the goal of building a unified health data network.
“When you want to say that you would require different companies, that actually makes the system difficult. It’s better to use one system because then you can network it—and that was the goal,” she explained.
Dr Amoakoh further suggested that the ministry’s decision may have been influenced by other motives rather than technical concerns.
“I smell a rat, and my antennas are very peaked on their back of accountability. The only logical conclusion is that the minister just wants to change the contract for reasons he alone knows,” she said.
The Ministry of Health has defended the transition, saying the new GHIMS platform will enhance interoperability and improve data management across the health sector.
But the move has raised questions about transparency and accountability in government contracts, with health sector observers calling for an independent review to determine whether due process was followed.
The Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), introduced in 2018, was part of Ghana’s e-health agenda to digitise patient records and streamline service delivery in public hospitals nationwide.
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