Former Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang-Manu has conveyed his appreciation to President Akufo-Addo for the opportunity to serve in the ministerial role.
The Dormaa Central MP disclosed that the president personally informed him of his removal in a February 14 reshuffle.
Agyemang-Manu mentioned that President Akufo-Addo provided valid reasons for his decision to replace him as the health minister.
He sees the reshuffling as part of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) strategy to break the eight-year cycle in governance.
“This reshuffling will help me do something different in my life. If I tell you the number of times I have seen the sun, you will marvel. This is because I remained dedicated to the job I was given as a minister.
“I am proud of what I have achieved as a minister. I have achieved a lot. I have no regrets. I know what I have achieved,” he said in an interview.
Health Minister and Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa Central Constituency under the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has officially submitted his nomination to participate in the upcoming parliamentary primaries.
The submission was made by Clement Obeng, the MP’s Personal Assistant and spokesperson, along with a group of supporters at the Party’s office in Dormaa-Ahenkro, Dormaa Central Municipality of the Bono Region.
A sum of GHC38,000.00, the required fee for a sitting MP entering the parliamentary primaries, was paid during the submission.
In a post-submission press interaction, Obeng refuted speculations circulating in certain quarters of the constituency that Agyemang-Manu had no intentions of seeking re-election for the Dormaa Central seat.
He conveyed the MP’s resolve to persist in the various development initiatives he has initiated in the region, pledging to advance the improvements on the Dormaa-Ahenkro-Aboabo road if reelected.
Nana Dwomo Benson, the NPP Constituency Secretary, accepted the form and urged the team to conduct a campaign marked by respect, avoiding insults, gossip, and discord.
Yao Yeboah, the Board Chairman of the Ghana Health Service, had previously submitted his nomination to compete in the primaries.
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has issued a directive to the management of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, instructing them to reopen the Renal Dialysis Unit for outpatient services.
The unit had been closed to outpatient services in May 2023 due to the high cost of dialysis consumables. The decision to reopen the unit comes after the Minister’s directive.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Isaac Baah Ofei, confirmed this directive in an interview with Citi News.
“The Minister has directed the Chief Executive Officer of Korle-Bu to as a matter of urgency, see to the opening of the centre and so he directed as well that while it is opened, Korle-Bu should issue a statement for the general public to know exactly what is going on and when they can get access to the place.”
A partial reopening of the Renal Dialysis Unit occurred on September 27, which was accompanied by an announcement of an increase in dialysis treatment costs per session from GH¢380 to GHS¢765.42.
The Member of Parliament for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, is advocating for Parliament to summon the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, regarding the closure of the outpatient department of the Renal Unit at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The closure of the unit since May 2023 has led to the deaths of 19 outpatients, attributed to a 4 million Ghana Cedi debt. Akandoh emphasized the need for the government to provide updates on the measures taken to reopen the facility.
The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has revealed that Ghana will be taken from the list of beneficiaries of the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) to cease supplying free vaccine to Ghana – Agyemang-Manu in the coming days.
According to Mr. Agyemang-Manu, the GAVI initiative will not supply Ghana with free vaccines following its attainment of lower middle-income status.
Gavi, or the Vaccine Alliance, is an independent public-private partnership and multilateral finance structure that aims at increasing worldwide access to the use of vaccines, particularly among vulnerable children.
Speaking at the commissioning of a new office complex of the Ghana Vaccine Institute in Accra, Mr. Agyemang-Manu said Ghana needs to be self-sufficient in the production of vaccines.
“While the GAVI alliance support is about 80 percent of Ghana’s vaccine, our attainment of a lower middle-income status means we will have to transition from GAVI support by the year 2027.”
Mr Agyemang-Manu added that the government has since developed the national vaccine policy to translate President Akufo-Addo’s vision of making Ghana a vaccine manufacturing hub into a reality.
Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has disclosed that funds totaling $6.4 million had been given to UNICEF for the procurement of three essential infant immunizations.
The Health Minister stated that several crucial shipping and procurement operations are part of the causes for the supply delay when he testified before Parliament on Thursday, March 9, to address concerns about the shortages.
Taking a question on the amount paid for the vaccines from the Member of Parliament for the Okaikoi North constituency, Theresa Awuni, the Minister disclosed that “we have made payments of about $6.4 million of the Cedi equivalent to UNICEF who supplies us the vaccines.”
He further disclosed that a large chunk of the funds for the vaccines was disbursed by the National Health Insurance Authority in tranches.
“I have a template on how these monies were released; the NHIA transferred GH¢25 million in June 2022. We also had another GH¢10.5 million in October, we had GH¢13.1 in November and the last tranche was around GH¢23 million in December. All of these totalled GH¢71.8 million, and we budgeted this amount on the basis of GH¢6 to the dollar, but we are all aware that the Cedi was not trading at that amount, so we had shortfalls in the dollar equivalence and that is what caused the delays.”
Ghana has been hit with acute childhood vaccine shortages since October 2022 which has left thousands of babies across the country unvaccinated.
The Minister failed to give a definite timeline for the supply of the vaccines.
The Health Ministerneeds to find ways to raise money to address the country’s lack of child immunization vaccines, according to the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Health and Research Analysis, Thomas Anaba.
Dr. Thomas Anaba asserts that it is the responsibility of Kwaku Agyemang-Manuand his Ministry to make sure that the nation’s supply of vaccines does not run out.
He clarified that the collection of data on the number of births that take place each year, which is then used by the ministry to determine the number of vaccines to be purchased, is one of the few duties of the Health Ministry.
Therefore, he criticised Mr. Agyeman-Manu for allowing a statewide scarcity of vaccines, stating that the Minister and his team could tell when the Ministry was running short on vaccine supplies based on the aforementioned facts.
Speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe, Dr Anaba said, “I think the duty lies on the Minister, to know that this [shortage in vaccine] is happening. They have storage facilities that stock all these vaccines.
“Once you give the last dose or the minimum level has reached its point, you have to trigger the process of already getting the goods and coming into the country.
He added that, “You don’t wait to for it to get to the red line before you import. You don’t also wait to for vaccines to get short before you start complaining.
“So, I think that procurement is basically the duty of the Ministe…Agyemang Manu must make sure he gets the money. Wherever he’ll get it, he should.”
Dr Anaba’s comment comes on the back of reports that have indicated that the country has been hit with a shortage in some childhood vaccines.
The Ministry of Health failed to secure a procurement of these essential vaccines since the beginning of the year 2023.
The vaccines in question that have been scarce nationwide are BCG, which is needed to primarily prevent the occurrence of tuberculosis in babies, and OPV, which is to prevent polio infections.
Other vaccines to prevent diseases such as whooping cough and measles are also out of supply.
Speaking before parliament’s committee on health, officials of the Health Ministry and the Ghana Health Service blamed this shortage on various factors, which included the recent rapid cedi depreciation.
Some Members of Parliament such as the Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh have contended that the justifications proffered by the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service for the scarcity of child vaccination nationwide were untenable.
Dr Anaba also said on The Probe that he found it difficult to comprehend that Ghana’s failure to implement a globally recognised, elaborate vaccination program, which was followed by every nation, was due to financial challenges.
He questioned where the nation’s money had gone and highlighted that, Ghana was fond of making mistakes when it came to procurement at the Ministry of Health, particularly for vaccines.
Dr Anaba told the host, Blessed Sogah, “We made those mistakes when it came to procurement of Corona Virus medication, now we are making the same mistake for a programme vaccination that is world-wide understood that if you have these vaccines, these illnesses will not be manifested in your country.”
On Tuesday, February, 28, 2023, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu and other agency heads failed to honor an invitation from parliament to respond to issues regarding the shortage of vaccines for children.
For the past few months, certain vaccines needed for the routine immunization of infants from 12 to at least 18 months have been scarce without a readily available solution.
The measles-rubella vaccination, the BCG vaccine, and the poliovirus vaccine, according to Ghana Health Service (GHS), are the vaccines that are out of stock.
The vaccines were planned for purchase in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Speaking to the media, the Director General of GHS,Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, indicated that the service was unable to purchase the aforementioned vaccines due to the depreciation of the Ghana Cedi.
The Ghana Health Service, the Finance Minister, and other agency heads were subsequently invited by the Parliament’s Health Committee to an urgent meeting on Tuesday, February 28 in response to the troubling situation.
With the exception of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), The Minister of Health and the other heads of agencies, however, did not show up for the meeting.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday, February, 28, Chairman of the Health Committee, Nana Ayew Afriyie stated that with the exception of the Health Ministry’s Chief Director, who said the Ministry had written to the Committee to request an extension, the other agencies had not provided specific justifications for not honouring the invitation.
“Unfortunately for us this morning, the Minister of Health is not here and the Ghana Health Service is not here, the Vaccine Control Programme is not here, but we have the National Health Insurance Authority and business will however go on.
“I am not aware of the reasons why the state agencies are not here, but I have just been on the phone with the Ministry of Health’s Chief Director, and she told me that she has sent a letter to the Committee asking for a rescheduling of the date to March 7 because of the unavoidable absence of the Minister, but I am yet to see a letter to that effect,” he added.
The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, is advocating for more children to be vaccinated against malaria.
He advised parents to allow their children below two years, to be vaccinated against malaria to stimulate the nation’s efforts to eradicate malaria in the country by 2030.
He emphasised that the malaria vaccine remains safe, effective and well tolerated and has no debilitating consequences on the health of children.
Mr Agyemang-Manu gave the advice while speaking at the launch of the expansion of the malaria vaccine implementation programme in Sunyani, on the theme: “Malaria vaccine for additional treatment.”
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) with support from its partners, including GAVI, PATH, and WHO is implementing the pilot programme in parts of the country.
Mr Agyemang-Manu stated that vaccination not only protect and save children’s lives, but it is also one of the most cost-effective public health interventions and the most effective way to help children survive.
Considered to be the cornerstone of public health care, the Health Minister said globally vaccination has saved three million children from childhood diseases every year, and urged caregivers and parents to capitalise on the programme and vaccinate their eligible children.
In a speech read on his behalf, Dr Francis Kasolo, the WHO Representative to Ghana, said the “malaria vaccine is a welcome addition to the malaria control toolbox and will offer endemic countries the opportunity to rapidly reach children in the most vulnerable places with an effective intervention through the routine immunisation platform.”
So far, he said, about 1.5 million doses of the malaria vaccine had been administered across 42 districts in Ghana, reaching over 440,000 children with at least one dose and with over 175,000 children completing the fourth dose.
This is a commendable achievement for Ghana and Africa, according to Dr. Kasolo, who added that the malaria vaccine introduction programme demonstrated that the vaccine was safe, feasible, and could be implemented through routine childhood immunization alongside other malaria control interventions.
Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director General of the GHS, said the malaria vaccine reduced the number of times a child gets malaria, including severe malaria and reduced child deaths as well.
He explained children get the first dose of the vaccine at six months of age and the final dose at 18 months, a departure from the previous schedule of 24 months for the final dose.
The new schedule is, therefore, six months, seven months, nine months and 18 months, Dr Kuma-Aboagye explained, saying to get the maximum protection, a child must receive all the four doses.
