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Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Health Minister, has claimed that the disruption of the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS) was caused by the vendor.
According to the Health Minister, the NHIS system breakdown was a sabotage by the vendor to pressure the government into removing key clauses from a new agreement.
The health minister revealed that a new maintenance agreement between the government and the LHIMS vendor required the company to hand over data and grant the state full administrative access to the system, but they objected to those provisions.
Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 29, the Health Minister stated, “To avoid this disruption and the shutdown we are experiencing — although we didn’t have any contract with the vendor at the time we took over — we indicated to them that the Ministry was ready to sign a service maintenance agreement covering the 450 health facilities”.
“Don’t forget that the software is and was not for the state — that is why it is called LHIMS. 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 removed from the agreement,” he said.
He added, “We cannot expunge those clauses from the agreement because it is the state that must take charge of this data. So the vendor decided to switch the system off as and when he desired, and demanded what he wanted. This has gone on for more than two months, and for the past two weeks or so, the system has been completely down. If this is not blackmail, I don’t know what it is”.
He revealed that the government is developing a new state-owned platform, the Ghana Healthcare Information Management System (GHIMS), to replace LHIMS.
Meanwhile, the system breakdown has caused widespread delays in record-keeping and patient processing in the Ashanti Region.
Many hospitals have reverted to manual operations, with patients expressing frustration over prolonged waiting times and slower service delivery.
Additionally, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has disclosed that infractions identified in the Lightwave Health Information Management System signed under the previous government have been referred to the Attorney General.
“Since we began this journey, all stakeholders have been on board. From the CEO’s of the teaching hospitals, the medical superintendent, EOCO, the Attorney General, Minister for Communication, everybody has been on board. So the issue of legality and security issues has been referred to the Attorney General for advice and appropriate action.”
“It was never a contract considered by Parliament, They acted in bad faith,” he said.