Programme managers within the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have painted a troubling picture of what could lie ahead for the country’s health sector if the government does not take urgent steps to fix health financing, according to a member of parliament who attended a recent closed briefing.
Alexander Akwasi Acquah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Akim Oda and a former Deputy Minister of Health, said the briefing, held roughly a month ago, brought together the GHS Director-General and agency heads alongside programme managers, who collectively outlined the risks building within the system.
“All the programme managers in their presentation gave us an indication of what is ahead if we do not sit up to look at the finance and health financing,” Mr Acquah said on Monday during an appearance on PM Express on Joy News.
The warning comes as Ghana’s health sector faces mounting pressure following the country’s rejection of a proposed five-year, $109 million bilateral health assistance arrangement with the United States. According to reports, the Mahama administration declined to proceed after objecting to conditions tied to the sharing of sensitive national health data.
Mr Acquah, a member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and of Parliament’s Health Committee, said the impact of reduced United States support is already being felt, with several programmes that depended heavily on that funding now under critical strain.
He acknowledged that continued engagement from other international development partners has provided some breathing room, but cautioned that the structural problems run deeper than external funding gaps. He called for an urgent audit of waste across the public sector, echoing concerns raised by economist Nii Moi Thompson about inefficiencies that continue to drain public resources before they reach frontline services.
Mr Acquah also cited longstanding port clearance delays on donated medical supplies as evidence that the system struggles to absorb even the aid it does receive. He argued that without addressing these internal failures, no financing model, domestic or external, will deliver meaningful results.
