Ghana could lose up to $50 million in public funds if the government proceeds with plans to replace Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions Ltd, the local company behind the country’s national e-health system, former Health Minister Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye has warned.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, Okoe Boye said the Ministry of Health’s decision to terminate Lightwave’s $100 million contract and engage a new vendor amounted to “gross financial waste,” arguing that most of the system’s infrastructure and training had already been completed.
“After investing over $73 million, training tens of thousands of staff, and connecting hundreds of facilities, Ghana cannot afford to discard a working national system for political or commercial motives,” he said.
The former minister explained that Lightwave had successfully digitized more than 450 public health facilities, including four teaching hospitals, six regional hospitals, and over 200 district hospitals, under the National e-Health Project launched in 2016.
Company ownership
Okoe Boye dismissed claims by the current Health Minister that Lightwave was a foreign firm, supplied inferior equipment, or stored Ghanaian health data abroad.
He maintained that the company was “wholly Ghanaian-owned” and that “all data remain stored within Ghana’s health infrastructure.”
He also alleged that the Ministry had violated the contract’s dispute-resolution clauses by engaging a new company — Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS) — without going through due process.
“The unilateral termination of a functional national health system threatens continuity of care and risks data loss for over 25 million Ghanaians,” Okoe Boye said, adding that GHIMS had digitized fewer than five facilities to date.
He called on the Chief of Staff to mediate between the Ministry of Health and Lightwave to protect national health data and avoid duplication of work already completed.
Background
The Ministry of Health has launched a new digital health information system to replace the existing Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), accusing its contractors of poor performance and blackmail.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said the new Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS) will ensure full state control over medical data following what he described as widespread disruptions in the LHIMS platform.
Akandoh said Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions was awarded a $100 million contract in 2019 to connect 950 public health facilities but completed fewer than half, despite receiving more than 70% of the payment.
He added that a forensic audit uncovered irregularities in hardware supply and that Ghanaian health data was being hosted on servers in India — a claim the company has denied.
“We are taking full control. Ghanaians will never go back to the manual way,” Akandoh said at a government briefing.
The Ministry has referred the matter to the Attorney-General for further action while hospitals continue to face temporary disruptions in patient record systems.
Source: asaaseradio.com
