The Ministry of Health has introduced a new digital platform to manage health information across the country following widespread disruptions in the national health data system.

The new platform, known as the Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS), replaces the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), which the government says has failed to deliver on its mandate.

Speaking at the Government Accountability Series on Wednesday, October 29, the Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh accused the company behind LHIMS of underperformance and what he described as blackmail.

“Ghanaians will never go back to the manual way. We are moving forward responsibly, confidently, and decisively. At this point, I would want to share with you the facts, nothing but the facts as we inherited.”

Mr Mintah Akandoh explained that in 2019, the government signed a $100 million contract with a company called Lightwave to connect 950 health facilities nationwide through LHIMS.

The contract, he said, was meant to end in 2022 but was extended twice, first to 2023 and later to 31st December 2024 due to delays in implementation.

“At the end of the expiration, out of the 950 facilities, only 450 had been connected. You would all agree with me that a contract meant for three years, extended to five years, but with only 450 facilities delivered, clearly shows the company underperformed.”

He added that although less than half the work had been completed, over 70% of the total contract sum had already been paid.

“By December 2024, the vendor had been paid about $77 million out of the $100 million. Clearly, more than 70% of the total amount had been paid, yet less than 50% of the work was done.”

The Minister noted that a forensic audit of the project uncovered further irregularities in the supply of hardware, including shortfalls in quantity and poor quality of equipment.

“We realised that even the hardware supply had gaps,” he said.

“If the contract stated that HP laptops should be supplied, cheaper brands were delivered. If it said 100 computers, fewer were supplied. The gap in hardware alone was not less than $18 million.”

Mr Mintah Akandoh also raised serious concerns about data security and sovereignty, explaining that the system’s cloud infrastructure was hosted outside Ghana.

“It is unconscionable for any company to have access to the electronic medical records of Ghanaians without the state having control. With the cloud infrastructure built somewhere in India, we had to act.”

The Ministry has since referred the matter to the Attorney-General’s Department and relevant security agencies for advice and further action.

Meanwhile, the ongoing disruptions in the LHIMS system have forced some hospitals to revert temporarily to manual record-keeping, while the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has also reported service downtimes affecting patient services.

Mr Mintah Akandoh said the government’s focus now is on restoring stability and ensuring that public health facilities can continue operating without interruption under the new GHIMS platform.

“As a Ministry, our concern was to find a solution to this mess. Even though we didn’t have any contract with the vendor at the time, we indicated that we were ready to sign a maintenance agreement to cover the 450 facilities. But the software itself was not owned by the state.

"That is why it was called the Lightwave Health Information Management System. We are now taking full control.”