Sammy Gyamfi and Nana Aba Anamoah
For people supporting the #FixTheCountry campaign, successive governments are equally to blame for their failure to ensure adequate development and governance which they say Ghana lacks after 64 years of independence.
Media personality, Nana Aba Anamoah on Sunday took to her Twitter page to call out members of the opposition National Democratic Congress for joining the chant to #FixTheCountry while ignoring their party’s role in the current state of Ghana.
Speaking specifically on the health sector, Nana Aba wondered how different things would have been if the NDC had actually made investments in the health sector during their stint in government.
“NDC peeps screaming #FixTheCountry. Imagine if you had dealt with the low number of ICU beds alone at Korle Bu. Imagine if you had ensured [the] availability of defibrillators at our major hospitals. Imagine oo. Just imagine. You think we’d be here today?” she posted.
Following her post and several engagements with some NDC supporters over the matter, the National Communications Officer of the opposition party, Sammy Gyamfi, took to his Facebook page to outline the NDC’s investment in the health sector, specifically under the John Dramani Mahama administration.
According to Sammy Gyamfi, “no party in the history of this 4th republic has done more than the NDC has done in the health sector”.
He thus listed a host of projects including a quaternary hospital, 4 regional hospitals, 3 institutional hospitals, 14 district hospitals, 18 health centres, 20 polyclinics, over 2000 CHPS Compounds and a nationwide investment of $264 million into a Medical Equipment Replacement Programme as some investments the Mahama government made in the health sector.
“Aside [from] the dozens of health infrastructure projects including a quaternary hospital, 4 regional hospitals, 3 institutional hospitals, 14 district hospitals, 18 health centres, 20 polyclinics, and over 2000 CHPS Compounds that were built across the length and breadth of the country, the Mahama administration rolled out the National Medical Equipment Replacement Programme under which US$264 million was invested in the provision of critical diagnostic and treatment equipment for over 150 hospitals nationwide. This included all teaching hospitals, all regional hospitals, 125 district hospitals, 14 health centres and 8 mobile clinics.”
“The equipment received by hospitals varied from MRI machines, CT scans, fluoroscopy machine, X-ray machines, oxygen plants, digital mammography, just to mention a few.”
“Under this program, obsolete equipment and theatres we replaced and rehabilitated. For instance, at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the Paediatric Surgery Theatre which remained closed for almost 8 years, the General Surgery Theatre and the Babies Unit were all refurbished and made operational,” he wrote.
Sammy Gyamfi again pointed out that the John Mahama administration achieved the stated feats with what he described as a relatively smaller resource envelope of Ghc248 billion as compared to Ghc350 billion accessed by the Akufo-Addo government over a period of four years.
“All these were achieved with a relatively smaller resource envelope of just about GHc248 billion. Now, the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government has had access to a total resource envelope of over GHc350 billion in only 4 and [half] years. The question we should ask is what do they have to show relative to investments in the health sector for this gargantuan and unprecedented resource envelope? They have nothing significant to show except consumption, profligacy and corruption. And that’s why they cannot show any hospitals or significant projects they have built or undertaken in the last 4 and half years in the health and other sectors of our lives.”
“Therefore, in all fairness, you cannot blame the current challenges in our health sector on the NDC that left power about five (5) years ago. Have a nice day and continue doing the great job you are doing for mother Ghana,” he concluded.
But Nana Aba in her reaction to Sammy Gyamfi’s post when prompted by a follower, stated that despite the listed achievements by the NDC, the nation’s health sector continues to be in a sorry state.
“You’re blinded by politics. Go to Korle Bu or any regional hospital. When you’re told there’s no bed, pull out Sammy Gyamfi’s detailed NDC achievements & get patients to sleep on it,” she tweeted.