The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South in the Eastern Region, Dr Kingsley Agyemang has questioned the commitment of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) towards the healthcare needs of Ghana.
According to the MP, THE 2025 Budget and Economic Statement read by Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson captured only six of the NDC’s 33 campaign promises on health, presented in Chapter 5 of the party’s manifesto.
““Out of the 33 policies, health interventions and proposals IN the NDC manifesto, I am sorry to say that just six of them were captured in this budget. This represents only 18.81% of their manifesto. I am being very charitable because out of this six, only two were fully captured,” he observed.
The legislator specifically described as abysmal, the silence of the 2025 budget statement on mental health and provisions for public health emergencies and pandemics.
Dr Agyemang was concerned this was happening at a time the country was battling the use of addictive opioids with an urgent need for more mental health facilities to offer rehabilitation and psychological attention to addicts.
Reminding the house, he recounted, “You said to the Ghanaian people in chapter 5 of your manifesto that you were going to increase access to mental healthcare. We were here when the health minister mounted the dispatch box and read a statement to us on the impact of opioids on the Ghanaian youth. He called for a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of the use of these opioids.”
He bemoaned, “Various MPs who had the opportunity to comment agreed that in our various constituencies, the use of opioids is very, very high. Conservatively, in each of our constituencies, you could have as many as a hundred thousand youth using opioids. This means we have about 260,000 youth exposed to the use of opioids. The new opioid substance being abused is called ‘red’.”
“However this mental health issue which was stated boldly in the Manifesto of the NDC, did not find expression in the 2025 budget putting us all at risk,” Dr Agyemang pointed out.
He contended that President John Dramani Mahama’s vision to create jobs for the youth could not be realized if little attention was accorded the opioid menace insisting that the deleterious effect of opioids on productivity was well documented.
He warned that Ghana’s healthcare system would be badly exposed to emerging threats of global pandemics if the country went to sleep after suffering serious resource constraints and shocks during the COVID 19 pandemic.
“In the NDC manifesto, you did indicate that you were going to bring about proposals to enhance public health emergency and pandemic preparedness. Through this you intended to establish what you called the Ghana center for disease control and prevention.”
If we don’t know anything at all, les be minded about how COVID put all of us at risk. For a national budget on health that did not make provisions for pandemics, it is a worry,” he stated.
Dr. Agyemang called for the health minister to consider amending the budget to reflect these healthcare concerns ahead of appropriation in the best interest of the country and its citizens.
“It is a very innocuous appeal that the minister for finance comes back to this house to increase the provisions he has made in the 2025 budget for health. We are all exposed to mental health and pandemics,” he reechoed.
He drew the attention of the house and government to the reality of the health of the country being its wealth charging the NDC to be minded of the overwhelming confidence Ghanaians reposed in President John Dramani Mahama to champion their concerns as leader of the country.
By: Ivan Heathcote – Fumador.
