Government needs $20 million to tackle health crisis – Minority

The minority in parliament says government needs about 20 million dollars to resolve the prevailing health situation in the country.

They have called for pragmatic measures to be taken in order to rescue health facilities from the looming danger of “no bed syndrome”.

Health facilities in the country are currently under pressure, resulting from the lack of accommodation for patients who trudge the various hospitals to receive medical care, particularly people with emergency cases.

But speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, the deputy minority spokesperson on Health, Dr. Robert Kuganab-Lem suggested that for government to completely deal with the issue of “no bed syndrome”, government needs a huge amount of about 20 million dollars.

He argued that, the role of government as at this time is very imperative as it will give some hope and assurance to the general public on the actions government is taken to calm down the pressure.

“Government needs about 20 million dollars if government wants to deal with this issue completely and government must actually find the money to do it because it is that important to us all and we can’t continue to be in this mess” he said.

He urged government as a matter of urgency to commit funds to deal with the pending issue of “no bed syndrome”.

The constant pressure on the hospitals caused some hospital authorities to turn away patients with various emergency cases until a directive was issued by the Health Ministry’s directorate to hospitals not to turn away patients with emergency cases.

Meanwhile, the Ministries of Information and Health, together with the Interim Management Committee of the University of Ghana Medical Centre, have hinted that the facility will begin operations on, July 18, 2018.

The 217 million dollar medical center has been abandon for over 18 months since the Mahama administration commissioned the first phase of the facility.

All things being equal, the opening of the facility will help ease the pressure on some major hospitals in the capital.