We’ll Be Establishing Accounts for All Medical Equipment- Health Minister

The Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has announced a review of the management of teaching hospitals across the country.

Principal among them is raising funds to sustainably maintain medical equipment.

The government plans to have accounts established for all medical equipment to generate revenue.

“It is the government’s position that any medical equipment we use at the health facility must have an exclusive account where you put the proceeds. When the machine is obsolete or when we need to fix it, you go into the account and take money to fix it,” he announced after a visit to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra.

Despite acknowledging the non-profit nature of public health facilities, he believes the idea is feasible.

“I am not oblivious of the fact that public health facilities don’t charge as much as private facilities, but I always tell them that the birth that lays the Golden egg must not be killed. Where we can generate enough money, we must always keep those places running no matter what.”

According to the lawmaker, the visit to the facility on May 14 was necessitated by public complaints.

In his estimation, the facility is “not in the best of shape”.

“I decided to come see for myself and have some meetings with the management so we can think through how we solve it.”

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini