A Fellow with the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Kwame Sarpong Asiedu, says only 5% of the country’s consultation rooms have the necessary tools to properly diagnose patients, yet government after government keeps building hospitals without addressing the real problems.

“We should stop the political dishonesty,” he said bluntly on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday night.

“Because whatever Richard Salomey, General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), is saying and whatever I’m saying are in documents like I have referred to.”

Mr. Sarpong Asiedu pointed to a powerful and damning document: the Holistic Assessment of Health Program of Works, part of a broader Health Harmonisation Assessment Report endorsed by Ghana’s Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, the Global Fund and the World Health Organisation.

“It is not me saying it,” he said. “It is in the report that was commissioned by the Government of Ghana, the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, the Global Fund and the WHO. So it’s an internationally accepted report that is done for all countries that are members of the WHO.”

That report states clearly that only 5% of Ghana’s consultation rooms are equipped well enough to make proper diagnoses.

Yet despite this, Sarpong Asiedu lamented, successive governments ignore the data and instead spend millions building hospitals that remain hollow shells of functionality.

“We jettisoned that report and went into building hospitals,” he said, shaking his head.

“That is what I say, that as health professionals, this is what we should be telling the policymakers and the ultimate spenders, which in this case is the Health Minister.”

His message to fellow health professionals was a call to conscience and accountability.

“If you make these decisions which are at variance with what the health assessment reports say, then we would walk away. It’s as simple as that.”

He did not mince words about the leadership of the sector either, referencing the recent removal of the CEO of the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

“That’s why I struggle to support the sacked CEO of the Tamale Teaching Hospital,” he said.

“Because all of us—myself included, Richard [Salome], the president of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, the president of the GMA—we have all read this report.”

He questioned why leaders within the sector sat silently for years, knowing the contents of these assessments, yet continued to oversee a system that prioritised appearances over substance.

“We have our colleagues sitting and superintending when what is in the reports is not being done,” he said.

“Now you find yourself in confrontation with the Minister, I cannot support you.”

He insisted that he had already made his position known publicly.

“That’s why I spoke out when those reports came out, to say nobody should be working under those facilities.”

To Sarpong Asiedu, the disconnect between what the evidence demands and what political actors pursue is too glaring to ignore.

“How do you sit down when those reports say what they say?” he asked.

“We are building structures and calling them hospitals, but inside, they cannot treat.”