The Ministry of Health has denied claims that it intends to stop Zipline drone delivery services.
Reports in the media said the Minister at a meeting with management of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in the Ashanti Region, threatened to suspend the services of Zipline due to its abuse by some health facilities.
However, the Ministry in responding to the report through a statement issued on April 20, described it as misleading.
“The Minister bemoaned the practice where some health facilities just place orders for Zipline services not in times when the service is most needed. Due to the unpredicted nature of emerging technologies like Zipline, it will be in the Ministry’s and its agencies’ best interests to periodically review the guidelines around its operations to ensure alignment with Government policies”.
“The Ministry remains committed to the operations of Zipline in the provision of essential healthcare services and will keep exploring all available means to make this sustainable. We hereby wish to call on the public to disregard these misleading and misrepresentation headlines”.
Mr. Agyeman-Manu is further said to have complained about the collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
However, the Ministry clarified that the Minister rather condemned extortions by some healthcare providers which is negatively affecting the scheme.
“We wish to state unequivocally that the said headlines are misleading and a complete misrepresentation of what the Minister said on the respective subject matter. According to the Minister, “From the end-users’ point of view, it looks like the Health Insurance is not working as a result of the extortions.” This statement is not meant to insinuate that Health Insurance is not working but is an admonition to the managers of the Ghana Health Service through its providers to end this criminality by every means possible.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh
