The Member of Parliament for Akyem Abuakwa South and a member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Kingsley Agyeman, has raised concerns about Ghana’s preparedness to respond to potential outbreaks of Ebola and other infectious diseases, particularly in the middle and northern parts of the country.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews' The Pulse on Wednesday, questioned the country’s capacity to manage such emergencies, citing gaps in health infrastructure and the non-operational status of key facilities such as the Sewua Hospital and the Afari Military Hospital in the Ashanti Region.

Dr. Agyeman noted that although the Sewua Hospital was designed with a 50-bed isolation centre, it is currently not operational, raising concerns about the country’s readiness to handle infectious disease outbreaks.

“For instance, if we go to Sewua, it has a 50-bed isolation centre. Now let’s ask ourselves: what is our preparedness towards pandemics and other infectious diseases? If something like Ebola crops up, and it happens within the middle belt or the northern sector, where will we send the patient?” he questioned.

He further argued that while some facilities in the Greater Accra Region may be able to provide limited support, the same cannot be said for other parts of the country, especially the middle and northern belts.

Dr. Agyeman warned that the "lack of functional and well-distributed isolation centres could severely hamper Ghana’s response to any major outbreak."

He therefore called on authorities to urgently complete and operationalise abandoned or non-functional health facilities and ensure equitable distribution of health infrastructure across the country to strengthen national preparedness.