Ghana Health Information Management System will replace the Lightwave Health Information Management System.
This new system belongs to the state and not to any private vendor.
The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh made this known during a briefing on the Lightwave Health Information System Contract on Wednesday.
“Ladies and gentlemen, the good news is that we have the solution. What were the issues? The issue one was that the software didn’t belong to the state. And so when we are going for any new software, the software must be for the state. And so today, we have GHIMS. And the GHIMS is Ghana Health Information Management System. And not for any individual,” he said.
The Minister announced a four-week rollout plan for the new system.
“The plan going forward is that in the next one week, we are going to begin with the teaching hospitals, the regional hospitals and the highly populated district hospitals to roll them over onto the system, the GHIMS. In the second week, we’ll be looking at the rest of the district hospitals. And then in the third week, we’ll be looking at the polyclinics, the health centers and the CHIPS. In the fourth week, we’ll do the MOPAPs,” he stated.
He added that he is confidently announcing to Ghanaians that government has a four weeks plan that will get the country out of the mess.
The Minister revealed that in 2019 Ghana government signed a contract with a company called Lightwaves for $100 million to connect 950 health facilities.
“The contract was supposed to expire in 2022. At the end of 2022, the contract was not well executed. And if I say not well executed, it had not connected the 950 facilities. And therefore, the contract was extended twice to expire in December, 31st December, 2024,” he said.
He noted that at the end of the expiration only 450 facilities had been connected out of the 950 facilities.
“At this point, you all agree with me that the contract was meant for three years and extended for five years for 950 facilities and you have only delivered 450 facilities. Clearly, nobody needs to tell you that the company underperformed,” he stated.
The Minister disclosed that although 450 out of the 950 facilities had been connected the vendor had been paid about $77 million.
“Clearly, more than 70 percent of the total amount had been paid. And less than 50 percent of the work has been done. At that point, we had to refer everything to the AG and the appropriate quarters, including the security, for advice and appropriate action,” he said.
He explained that when government took over it invited the vendor to hand over to the state since the contract had expired.
“We needed to understand exactly what we were taking over. So a forensic audit was conducted. And what we realized was that even the hardware, there were gaps in the supply of the hardware. The supply of computers. If, assuming the contract is stated that they should supply HP laptops, you go and cheaper brands are supplied,” he stated.
The Minister noted that there were issues of quality of equipment supplied and issues of quantity.
“Upon analysis, you realize that the gap alone for the hardware was not less than $18 million,” he said.
He added that the ministry indicated to the vendor that it was ready to sign service maintenance agreement covering the 450 health facilities.
“In the agreement, we indicated that before we sign such an agreement with you, you have to hand over the data to the state and you must give us administrative access to the service. The vendor insisted that those clauses must be expunged from the agreement. We cannot expunge those clauses from the agreement because it is a state that must take charge of these data,” he stated.
The Minister said the vendor decided to switch the system off as and when he desires and as and when he demands.
“And this has gone on for some time now, more than two months. And for the past two weeks or so, the system has been completely down. If this is not blackmailing, I don’t know what it is,” he said.
He announced that government has established an exchange where vendors will have to plug in.
“We realized that there was nothing like any exchange. And so we have established an exchange where even if you invite any vendor in, the vendor will then plug in and any vendor will not have a direct integration to our billing system or to any other sector. You necessarily will have to go through the exchange,” he stated.
The Minister noted that going forward government will open up for companies and players in the sector to bid for the remaining 500 health facilities.
“Provided they meet the necessary requirements. So that we open it up. And they will all go through the exchange. The middle way. So that in the future, we will not end at where we are at the moment,” he said.
He emphasized that the medical records of Ghanaians will never go back to the manual way.
“Let me put it on record that the medical records of Ghanaians will never go back to the manual way. We are moving forward responsibly, confidently, and decisively,” he added.
Richard Aniagyei, ISD
