Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye
Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, the Health Minister-Designate, says there will be intensive supervision in public health facilities across the country if Parliament approves his nomination as the Minister of Health.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as Minister of Health to replace Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, pending parliamentary approval.
Dr Boye, speaking at a ceremony at Tempane in Upper East Region to commission a newly constructed NHIA edifice for the district, emphasised that managers of public health facilities would be strictly accountable for the resources they used.
“Now that I am going to the Ministry of Health, if by the grace of God I pass the vetting, there will be serious supervision. Nobody in this country will
run a government hospital as if it is for his father or mother,” he said.
“I have worked in the Government sector before. If you don’t supervise people strictly, they even forget that they have bosses and with time, they run
government facilities like their private business.”
Apart from the Tempane District, Dr Boye commissioned similar edifi ces in the Pusiga and Bawku West districts.
He said even though the Authority regularly vetted claims from health facilities and paid accordingly, some managers of hospitals failed to pay for the cost of medicines they received from the Regional Medical Stores for onward payment to the Central Medical Stores and the pharmaceutical companies.
“….I have been encouraging the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service to monitor all the hospital heads, get interested in what they do with their hospital money, because if they do not pay the stores, even if the Authority pays them, there will be no medicines in the hospital,” he said.
Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Upper East Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, noted that Dr Boye’s commitment to the health of the citizenry was demonstrated by his constant touch with the people.
“In December 2022, he was in the Region on monitoring and for the launch of ‘My NHIS App’ in Tamale,” he said.
Mr Yakubu congratulated Dr Boye on his nomination for the Minister of Health position saying it was in recognition of his love for humanity and expressed the hope that the health system in Ghana would improve under his leadership.
“There were challenges in the past but with the sterling leadership of the CEO, some level of stability has been attained with delayed payment in claims reduced from 14 months to monthly.”
He called on stakeholders in the beneficiary districts to ensure the newly commissioned edifi ces were properly maintained, adding: “It is your property and should be seen as such.”