Kwame Owusu Danso, Executive Director of Lands and Mines Watch Ghana and the 2024 vice-presidential candidate of the Movement for Change, has launched a scathing attack on the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, describing him as a “knee-jerk minister” whose approach to addressing challenges in the health sector is driven more by publicity than sustainable solutions.
Speaking on GHOne TV’s award-winning morning show, GH Today, Mr. Owusu Danso criticized what he characterized as the minister’s reactive style of leadership, arguing that the Health Minister only responds when issues gain public attention instead of implementing proactive measures to prevent them.
According to him, the minister’s frequent visits to health facilities after controversies emerge have become a pattern that fails to address the root causes of problems within Ghana’s healthcare system.
“Akando is one of the worst-performing ministers in Ghana today. Let’s face it,” Mr. Owusu Danso stated during the interview.
He accused the minister of rushing to hospitals with media crews whenever incidents occur, suggesting that such actions are largely symbolic and do little to resolve the persistent challenges confronting healthcare delivery across the country.
“Whenever he hears that there’s an issue in a hospital, then he takes the media and runs there. All the videos I’ve seen of him show the same thing.
When there’s an issue, he carries the media, walks into the hospital, and then that’s it. We come back to ground zero and the issues still persist,” he said.
The former vice-presidential candidate further argued that Ghana’s healthcare sector requires strategic and long-term interventions rather than what he described as “sensationalism.”
“Let’s veer away from some of this sensationalism into an arena of seriousness.
Healthcare delivery is a serious business,” he stressed.
Mr. Owusu Danso’s comments come at a time when the health sector continues to face concerns over infrastructure deficits, shortages of medical supplies, staffing challenges, and incidents involving healthcare workers and patients in some health facilities.
While the Health Ministry has undertaken various initiatives aimed at improving healthcare access and service delivery, critics have increasingly called for more comprehensive reforms to address systemic problems within the sector.
The remarks are likely to spark debate over the performance of the Health Ministry and the government’s broader management of the country’s healthcare system.
As of the time of publication, the Ministry of Health had not publicly responded to Mr. Owusu Danso’s comments.
By 1960news.com
