The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, has been discharged from the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC), 3news.com can confirm.
Mr Agyemang Manu, who was admitted on Tuesday, June 9, contracted the deadly Covid-19 in the line of duty.
Hospital officials, who would not speak on record, indicated that the Health Minister is in stable condition and responding to treatment but not currently at UGMC.
The sector minister, who has not been seen in public since the last media briefing on May 28, is reported to have taken some days off and was yet to resume to work.
Member of Parliament for the Jauboso Constituency Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, a ranking member of the parliamentary health committee has descended heavily on the health minister Kwaku Agyeman Manu for doing little concerning the Covid-19 pandemic.
The NDC member of Parliament said the current health minister is the most under performed and “laziest”minister in the Akuffo Addo government. He said the health minister now don’t even attend committee to update the health Committee about the covid-19 pandemic. He made this comment at a press conference organize by the NDC to brief the press on the party stand concerning the Covid-19.
The Hon. Member said, the health minister is doing very little about the covid-19, he also made mentioned of a time that the ministry of health together Ghana health services have to take Covid-19 patients from Accra to Central region because there is no space in all the health facilities in Accra here.
The health minister should sit up and take care of issues seriously before it get out of hands.
The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh has ordered the arrest of three Chinese nationals operating a quarry company without a permit at the Afienya-Dawhenya Industrial and Urban Renewal Enclave in the Greater Accra Region.
The three, who are yet to be identified, established Skyline Quarry Company and employed 30 Ghanaian workers.
They dug large trenches and used dangerous explosives like dynamite to blast rocks underground.
There were excavators busily working at the quarry site, with trucks loaded with chippings leaving the site.
The Minister also ordered two other Ghanaians, building structures without a permit to stop work with immediate effect.
He issued a warning to all individuals and groups putting up the residential property on state lands in Shai Hills, Afienya and Dawhenya to stop work in their own interest since no compensation would be paid by the government upon demolition.
This came to light when Mr Asomah-Cheremeh led a team from the Lands Commission including; Mr Suleimana Dawuda Mahama, the Executive Secretary of the Commission, some police personnel, the media and technocrats of the Lands Ministry, to inspect on-going encroachment on the 13,200 acres of land acquired by the government in 2016 for an industrial enclave.
The Minister said the industrial enclave was acquired for the purposes of establishing factories as individual investors could apply to the Lands Commission to properly acquire plots of lands for setting up factories.
At Afienya, the team witnessed on-going construction of a private residential facility belonging to one John Quayson.
According to Mr Quayson, he bought the land from Mckeon Estate. There was another Baba Seidu, who was not present at the time of our visit, but met the mason he had contracted to construct structures intended be used as real estate working on the site acquired by the government for an industrial hub.
The Lands Minister said the government had issued an Executive Instrument and gazzetted the Land documents at the time of acquisition and would therefore not tolerate such impunity any longer.
The Executive Officer of the Mental Health Authority, Dr. Kwasi Osei, has expressed displeasure at the state of insecurity people with mental illness are exposed to in the country.
He made the statement in an exclusive interview with GhanaWeb in response to the issue of the growing number of mentally ill patients roaming the streets of major cities and towns.
According to Dr. Osei, they are rejected and looked down on by the public although they are equally humans who have rights.
“Unfortunately nobody is protecting them, in fact society even tends to think that they are not human beings who have their human rights and should be protected,†he lamented.
He highlighted the need for mental health organizations like the Mental Health Authority to be adequately funded so they can access the resources that would take the mentally ill people off the streets, protected and be given medical care.
“That is where we as a government agency responsible for mentally ill people have the responsibility to collect them, get them treated and send them back, but that it also means that somebody must give us the financial backbone, so we fall on the government again,†he concluded.
The Minister of Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu has warned health facilities to cease the purchase of drugs from pharmaceutical suppliers who do not belong to the framework contracting supply agreement.
He said, the framework contracting supply agreement was initiated to minimize, reduce and completely eradicate the issues of fake and expired medications that have engulfed the health facilities.
The minister, Mr. Agyeman-Manu gave this caution at the launch of Ghana Integrated Logistics Management Information System (GiLMIS), here in Koforidua in the Eastern Region aimed to monitor supply chain performance in Ghana.
GILMiS is a nationwide end visibility initiative that enables decision-makers at all levels to make informed and timely decisions, data integrity, low inventory operations costs, increase management efficiencies, accurate quantification and demand planning.
The implementation of the GiLMIS is one of the recent key reforms drive embarked upon by the Ministry of Health with support from the Global Fund to fight Tuberculosis, Aids and Malaria (GFTAM) and United State Agency for International Development (USAID), was to ensure commodity security which includes getting the right medicines and supplies in good condition whenever they are needed, strengthening health system and improving management decision making.
Mr. Agyeman- Manu indicated that to be able to identify the suppliers of fake medication, it is imperative to have identified people to supply drugs on procurement contractual agreement.
He said to ensure the various health facilities comply with the directive, the ministry will monitor the various facilities to inquire where they purchase their drugs, adding that the Ministry of Health will not hesitate to deal with anyone who fails to comply with the directive.
He indicated that one of the principles of the transformation agenda was to leverage on the availability of modern renovations, technology, and information management system to provide end to end visibility and facilitate access to quality supply chain data.
“This will lead to the supply chain environment capable of moving Ghana towards the attainment of health-related sustainable development goal including universal health coverageâ€, he said.
For his part, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Nuertey Ayertey said the Ministry of Health as part of its broader mandate of improving the quality of health of all people living in Ghana has the responsibility of upholding the vision to reduce inequalities in access to healthcare, increase health coverage, and ensure provision of effective healthcare services aimed at achieving a healthier national population.
He added the key component of which is providing access to essential medicines through an efficient public health supply chain.
Mr. Nuertey Ayertey was hopeful that these reforms fully implemented will ultimately impact on quality of healthcare delivery service, management decision-making and supply chain performance improvement thus reducing stock-outs, expiries, wastage and lowering inventory operation costs.
