The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Manhyia South Constituency, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has stated that it is embarrassing for government to instruct various health institutions to procure their own Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for the fight against the Ebola disease.
Government has asked health institutions to procure their own Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) while they await the bulk procurement by government.
The PPEs are being secured against a possible outbreak of the Ebola disease in the country.
[contextly_sidebar id=”JnPzYlGW3D4NYJjSxO6LgcTvbqPpfxtA”]A statement issued by the Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira further introduced the various health institutions to a private supplier of the PPEs .
But speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Opoku Prempeh criticized government’s directive, saying, “this is an embarrassment to the government and the early they come out to explain issues, the better it is for their own image.”
“This is a government that believes in propaganda and does not believe that even in the matters of health, there is the need to be factual and truthful,” he added.
The Manhyia South legislator questioned why the Ministry of Health contracted a private supplier to do the distribution when it could have taken the initiative to do so.
“If the Ministry of Health can write to various hospitals and direct them to a supplier …why can’t the Ministry order it and supply to the Hospitals? There is something shady about the whole thing,” he asked.
“Can you give me an example of anywhere in the world where in a national emergency, a government will write to individual hospitals and clinics to buy equipment and say we will refund later? Why would government then not acquire the whole stock and distribute as it deems necessary and pay later?” he quizzed.
Ghana as an emergency response centre for Ebola
Speaking on the United Nations (UN’s) decision to set up Ghana as an emergency response centre, Opoku Prempeh said though the decision is laudable, it might cause an outbreak of the Ebola disease in the country.
He said the Ebola patients who will be moving into the country might transfer the disease to others.
“How do we know or who can assure this country that by ferrying [Ebola] patients into this country, the disease cannot be transmitted into Ghana inadvertently”
He said though Ghana might even devise measures to check a possible outbreak in the country, those measures might not be too effective.
By: Marian Efe Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana