The Ministry of Health has rubbished reports that the sector minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, intends to halt Zipline drone delivery services.

According to the ministry, the information in the public domain is misleading and must be disregarded. It revealed that the Ministry remains committed to the operations of Zipline in the provision of essential healthcare services.

The ministry reacted to report in some media outlets which suggested that the Minister during a meeting with management of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) on Tuesday, April 18, 2023, in the Ashanti Region, threatened to halt the services of Zipline due to its misuse by some health facilities. In light of this, the ministry clarified that the report is not factual and will keep exploring all available means to make the Zipline service delivery sustainable.

“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… We hereby wish to call on the public to disregard these misleading and misrepresentation headlines.”
Ministry of Health

Extortions by health workers under NHIS

Furthermore, the ministry debunked claims that Mr. Agyeman-Manu is also reported to have lamented over the collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Contained in a statement, the health ministry explained that the Minister rather referred to the extortions by some healthcare providers which is adversely 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.”
Ministry of Health

The statement made by the health minister, the ministry noted, is not intended to insinuate that Health Insurance is not working but rather, an “admonition to the managers of the Ghana Health Service through its providers to end this criminality by every means possible”.

It will be recalled that Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, was alleged to have hinted at government’s plans to stop Zipline Ghana drone delivery system from setting up new centers in the country over high cost of service charges.

He indicated that health facilities in the country which rely on Zipline’s delivery of essential medical drugs to their facility for critical management of cases are abusing the service.

Addressing stakeholders in the health sector during the First Senior Managers Meeting of the Ghana Health Service, he lamented that single request made to transport drugs “comes with some huge cost”, highlighting the need for delivery of “essential service [and] very needed medications”.

To this end, the health minister stated that he was “engaging my big men to even stop them from setting up some new extra facilities”, because government “cannot pay the cost that is coming in with fly me this amount, fly me this amount…”

Ideally, he emphasized on the need to transport medical essentials which are needed for emergency treatment and not supplies such as “dewormers”.

Furthermore, Mr Agyeman Manu was also purported to have accused health facilities of extorting money from Ghanaians by compelling patients to pay cash for health services and rejecting the NHIS card. The minister indicated that he has experienced first-hand how some health facilities refuse to treat Ghanaians who present the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card.

Citing some health facilities, he noted that he had been compelled to pay cash even though he has an NHIS card at Ridge Hospital and the University of Ghana Medical Centre.