Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has unveiled a four-week plan to restore Ghana’s digital health records system after the shutdown of the Lightwave platform disrupted hospital operations and forced some facilities to revert to cash-and-carry payments.
Patients with valid NHIS cards were reportedly turned away or asked to pay for services as the system failed to verify insurance status.
Mr. Akandoh, Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 29, explained that one key challenge with the previous system was the lack of an “exchange” mechanism, which allowed a single vendor to monopolize access to health data.
The new platform ensures that any vendor must connect through a central exchange, preventing direct integration with hospital billing systems.
He also revealed that only 450 out of 950 health facilities were previously connected to the system, leaving roughly 500 facilities offline.
To address this, the rollout will be phased, starting with teaching and regional hospitals, followed by district hospitals, polyclinics, health centers, and CHPS compounds, with a final week dedicated to completing any remaining connections.
Mr. Akandoh added that the platform will be opened to competitive bids from multiple providers to prevent monopolization and improve efficiency.
“The plan going forward is that in the next one week, we are going to begin with the teaching hospitals, the regional hospitals, and the highly populated district hospitals to roll them over onto the system.
Again, in the second week, we’ll be looking at the rest of the district hospitals, and then in the third week, we’ll be looking at the polyclinics, the health centres, and the CHIPS. In the fourth week, we’ll do the mop-ups,” he said.
The Health Minister expressed confidence that this phased approach would restore full functionality and ensure continuity in healthcare delivery, while also establishing safeguards to promote transparency and prevent future system failures.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh
