Heckled minister denies cash & carry promise

Dr Kwaku Afriyie, MP and Minister of Health, was heckled with an avalanche of questions on the cash and carry system over the weekend by anxious members of the public at the Western Region version of the people’s assembly.

He was first peppered with questions on the poor conditions of service for nursing staff and the exodus of Ghanaian nurses to foreign countries. He said his ministry is considering the possibility of establishing another nursing training school at Tarkwa in the Wassa West District to train more nurses.

On the nurses conditions of service, most of the people who attended the forum agreed they were bad and noted that was leading to their migration from the country after training. Dr Afriyie said his ministry is working on that, but noted that the government could not take their case and treat it in isolation since that would also lead to agitation for better conditions of service by the other professional groups.

Touching on the ubiquitous cash and carry system, which was instituted by the previous NDC government, the health minister apparently worried with the number of questions being directed at him on the subject, went this time on a slight offensive, saying that nowhere in the NPP manifesto did they state that the cash and carry system would be abolished within the first year after coming into office.

Brandishing a copy of the manifesto in his right hand after reading the portion that deals with the abolition of the cash and carry system, Dr Afriyie said his party did not give a time frame during which it should be abolished, adding that the system has been entrenched for a long time, therefore, its total abolition would have to be done with care.