Akyem Oda MP questions government’s commitment to healthcare delivery after 10 servers were deactivated over an outstanding US$64,510.95 cloud hosting bill.
The Member of Parliament for Akyem Oda and former Deputy Minister of Health, Alexander Akwasi Acquah, has criticised the government following the nationwide disruption of critical digital information systems operated by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The shutdown, which reportedly occurred on October 29, 2026, followed the suspension of 10 servers by cloud hosting provider Akamai over an outstanding payment of US$64,510.95.
Reacting to the development in a social media post, Mr Acquah described the situation as scandalous and questioned why essential digital infrastructure supporting the country’s healthcare system had been allowed to become inaccessible over an unpaid hosting bill.
The former Deputy Health Minister also questioned the reported lack of internet connectivity at the Ministry of Health, suggesting that the situation points to broader challenges with the government’s management of digital infrastructure in the health sector.
“If you think this is not scandalous enough, go and ask why the Ministry of Health itself doesn’t have Internet services!!!” he stated.
He concluded his remarks with a political criticism of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC), declaring: “NDC never again.”
His comments come at a time when the disruption of several electronic health information platforms has forced health facilities across the country to temporarily revert to manual record-keeping and reporting.
Details contained in a November 2, 2026 memorandum issued by GHS Director-General, Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, indicate that Akamai suspended 10 servers hosting several critical health information systems over the outstanding US$64,510.95 balance.
The affected infrastructure supports digital platforms used by health facilities and administrators to collect, process, validate and transmit essential healthcare information.
Among the major systems affected is the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), a central platform used for health data entry, validation, analysis and report generation.
The disruption has prevented health facilities and district health administrations from accessing the platform to undertake routine electronic reporting and information management activities.
The Planning and Budget Management Information System (PBMIS), which supports institutional planning and budget management, has also become inaccessible.
Other affected platforms include the National Malaria Data Repository (NMDR), HIV and tuberculosis tracking systems, eTracker, the Family Planning and Health Care (FPHC) platform, the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) tracker and the ISRS sample tracker.
Although some Android-based applications remain functional in offline mode, their web-based services and connections with other systems have been disrupted.
The shutdown has also affected the data-exchange gateway responsible for transmitting birth notifications between the Ghana Health Service, the National Identification Authority and the Births and Deaths Registry.
The disruption has consequently raised concerns about the continuity of health information management, disease surveillance, institutional planning and the coordination of public health programmes.
In response to the disruption, the Ghana Health Service has directed regional and district health administrations to ensure that facilities temporarily return to manual record-keeping.
In the November 2 memorandum, Dr Akoriyea instructed health facilities to use paper registers and monthly summary forms to capture and submit health information for October and November 2026.
The directive is intended to ensure that essential health statistics continue to be collected despite the unavailability of the electronic reporting platforms.
Health information officers have also been instructed to organise and preserve the completed documents to facilitate the eventual transfer of the information into DHIMS2 once the system is restored.
The temporary arrangement is expected to minimise gaps in health data collection while the Service works towards resolving the hosting problem.
Despite the disruption, the Ghana Health Service has maintained that the suspension of the servers has not resulted in data loss or a security breach.
According to Dr Akoriyea, encrypted nightly backups of the affected systems were maintained outside the suspended Akamai account.
The backups were reportedly current up to October 29, 2026, when the servers were deactivated.
The assurance is expected to provide some relief to health sector stakeholders concerned about the safety and possible loss of critical national health information.
The availability of the backups also provides the Service with an alternative means of recovering the affected platforms should it become necessary to rebuild the systems using new infrastructure.
The Director-General has outlined two possible approaches to restoring the affected digital platforms.
The first, and reportedly fastest, option is to secure approval to settle the outstanding US$64,510.95 payment to Akamai.
Payment of the debt would allow the Service to reactivate its existing hosting account and restore the affected systems without undertaking a complete reconstruction.
The GHS is therefore seeking urgent approval to settle the outstanding amount and has appealed to the sector minister to facilitate the process.
The alternative is to procure new servers and reconstruct the affected platforms using the encrypted backups maintained outside the suspended account.
However, this option could take approximately six weeks after the necessary server infrastructure has been secured.
A prolonged restoration process could extend the period during which health facilities depend on paper-based reporting, potentially creating additional administrative demands for health workers and information management officers.
Beyond the immediate efforts to restore the affected systems, the Ghana Health Service is considering migrating its digital infrastructure to a hosting provider based in Ghana.
The proposed transition forms part of longer-term measures to strengthen the resilience and sustainability of the country’s health information systems.
The proposed arrangement is expected to involve a period of parallel operations, allowing the existing and new hosting infrastructure to operate alongside each other, as well as the establishment of a properly funded backup system.
The objective is to reduce the risk of similar disruptions and strengthen the country’s capacity to maintain uninterrupted access to critical health information.
The shutdown has brought renewed attention to the management, financing and sustainability of digital infrastructure within Ghana’s healthcare system.
Digital platforms have become increasingly important to healthcare administration, disease monitoring, budgeting, planning and the coordination of public health interventions.
Consequently, the suspension of multiple national health information systems over an outstanding hosting bill has raised questions about payment management, institutional preparedness and contingency arrangements for critical public services.
Mr Acquah’s criticism adds to the growing scrutiny surrounding the incident, particularly his assertion that the Ministry of Health itself lacks internet connectivity.
For now, the immediate challenge facing the Ghana Health Service is to secure the necessary resources to restore the affected platforms and ensure that health facilities can resume normal electronic reporting.
The incident also underscores the importance of reliable financing, effective contract management and sustainable digital infrastructure in supporting Ghana’s healthcare delivery system.
By 1960news.com
