"NDC’s Contribution to Ghana’s Health Sector Instrumental in Covid-19 Fight" – Mahama

Former President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama says people who criticized the erstwhile government’s investment in the country’s health sector were uninformed.

According to the former president and flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), his party's contribution to Ghana's health sector while in power has been instrumental in the fight against the covid-19 pandemic.

President Nana Akufo-Addo’s announcement of the construction of 94 hospitals across the country has invoked debate about the government’s investment in the sector amidst abandoned projects prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.

According to President Akufo-Addo, the pandemic has exposed the weakness in the country’s health system following years of under-investment.

But John Mahama during one of his digital conversations said critics of his healthcare interventions were misguided.

“The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana has also provoked quite a useful debate for the need for a more robust and effective health system. It has become obvious that the system must not only be responsive to the immediate and longterm health needs of our people but also withstand emerging global public health challenges such as this novel infectious disease we are facing.”

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“It has been widely acknowledged that some of the critical investments that we [NDC administration] made in the health sector has been extremely useful and enabled Ghana to lessen the impact of this pandemic on our people and our nation. This acknowledgement bears out the vision and clear thinking that went into the massive investments we made in the health sector. There were uninformed and snipped remarks at the time with some questioning why many facilities were constructed. We were aware however that these investments were necessary to modernise a very fragile and weak health system,” he said.

The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh had earlier urged the government to focus on completing abandoned hospital projects dotted across the country instead of starting new ones.