Former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service and former Presidential Advisor on Health, Anthony Nsiah-Asare, has defended the Akufo-Addo administration’s Agenda 111 initiative, insisting the ambitious hospital project was adequately funded and carefully designed to address critical gaps in Ghana’s healthcare system.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on 19 May, Dr Nsiah-Asare expressed surprise over claims that the programme lacked committed funding.

“I’m very much surprised because what people say when they are looking for power is different from what they do when they find it,” he stated.

According to him, Agenda 111 was conceived in response to weaknesses exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, particularly the country’s inadequate healthcare infrastructure.

“Government realised that we did not have enough hospitals across the country, and even as we speak now, we still do not have enough hospitals,” he said.

His comments come amid criticism by President John Dramani Mahama over the previous Akufo-Addo administration’s handling of the Agenda 111 hospital projects.

President Mahama described the decision to simultaneously commence the construction of hospitals across the country as poorly planned and financially unsustainable, questioning the execution and management of the healthcare initiative.

Dr Nsiah-Asare cited instances where patients reportedly died after being transferred from one hospital to another due to the lack of nearby healthcare facilities.

“That is the reason why some years ago, we had a 70-year-old man taken to about seven different hospitals before he lost his life. Recently, we also had a similar case,” he noted.

He explained that the Agenda 111 project was intended to improve access to quality healthcare by establishing district and regional hospitals in underserved parts of the country.

“If we have hospitals serving as referral centres across the country, people will not have to travel long distances to access quality healthcare,” he said.

Dr Nsiah-Asare further stated that the project formed part of a broader strategy to strengthen Ghana’s healthcare delivery system, from Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds at the community level to district and regional hospitals.

“With health insurance and accessible primary healthcare systems supporting health centres, clinics, maternity homes and CHPS compounds, then we are moving forward as a country,” he added.

He also revealed that the government identified significant gaps in psychiatric healthcare delivery and consequently made provision for additional psychiatric hospitals under the project.

“We realised that all the psychiatric hospitals were facing challenges, so plans were made to build another psychiatric hospital in the middle belt and another in the northern sector,” he disclosed.

On the issue of funding, Dr Nsiah-Asare maintained that the project received financial backing from multiple sources, including COVID-19 funds, budgetary allocations, and oil revenues.

“Today, I want to tell everybody that yes, we started Agenda 111 with the equivalent of 100 million dollars from COVID money, the District Assemblies Common Fund and budgetary allocations,” he stressed.

He questioned assertions that no committed funds existed for the project, asking: “What has happened to it? Where is that money?”