The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee and Member of Parliament for Effiduase/Asokore, Nana Ayew Afriyie, has criticised the government’s decision to allocate GH₵1.2 billion annually to the proposed Free Primary Healthcare programme, describing it as a misplaced priority.

His remarks on JoyNews follow a disclosure by the Minister for Health that the government will require at least GH₵1.2 billion each year to implement the initiative, which aims to expand access to basic healthcare services.

Dr Ayew Afriyie argued that Ghana already has a foundation of community-based healthcare systems, including Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds and community health workers.

“Who doesn’t know about dietary plans? Who doesn’t know about promotive healthcare? There are community health workers or auxiliary nurses who go as volunteers, educating people all the while,” he said.

He further criticised the condition of some existing district hospitals, noting that many operate from outdated colonial-era structures or repurposed CHPS facilities.

According to him, rather than committing significant resources to a new primary healthcare initiative, the government should prioritise completing hospital projects under the Agenda 111 programme.

“The most important thing is that every place has a CHPS compound. Every place has a health centre. What they lack is state-of-the-art district hospitals. You think through by making sure that at least Agenda 111 projects are ongoing. You cannot complete all of them now. Rearrange them in a manner that in the next 10 years, we can complete them,” he stated.

“You’ve invested almost $4.7 billion in it, and you’ve not touched it. You are now going to invest $1.2 billion a year into primary health care,” he noted.

Dr Ayew Afriyie maintained that while improving primary healthcare remains important, the government must adopt a balanced and realistic investment approach that prioritises completing existing infrastructure projects.