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Ban Ghanaian politicians that seek medical treatment abroad, our hospitals will be the best in Africa

The Minister For Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu55 The Minister for Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu

Fri, 9 Jul 2021 Source: Joel Savage

African countries, including Ghana, decades after independence, don’t have a good medical system; therefore, the countries depend more and more on external aid for medical treatment.

It is not that Ghana has no money to build good hospitals and equipped them with modern health facilities but the politicians simply don’t want to do it because they are interested in corruption.

Health care is considered a human right but in Ghana, if you don’t have money, you can easily succumb to a disease that is not even life-threatening.

In reality, hospitals in Ghana are not many; therefore, one doctor takes care of thousands of patients, and sometimes, a patient that sits long hours waiting for a doctor dies before the arrival of the doctor.

Corruption is so severe in Ghana that it has affected every part of the country, including the medical infrastructure. A seriously sick person needs to pay a bribe before he can even get a bed to sleep on.

Despite the money Ghana earns in the exportation of gold, diamond, timber, oil, cocoa, and other valuable agricultural products, the country’s healthcare system remains fragile. Nobody knows where the proceeds go.

Many Ghanaian doctors have left the country to other developed countries because they find the health system in a very appalling condition, while the ministers and those occupying high positions, often leave the country to seek medical attention overseas.

Corruption can’t be eliminated but it can be reduced and the result will be beneficial to the nation. If Ghanaians politicians are banned from seeking medical treatment abroad, they will be serious about improving our medical facilities in the country.

Some of the developed countries that the Ghanaian politicians often go to for medical treatment don’t have one-tenth of the resources Ghana has, yet they worked very hard to achieve what the lazy African politicians travel to enjoy.

Until Ghanaian politicians are banned from entering Europe or America to seek medical attention, Ghana’s hospitals will always remain a death trap and run short of nurses and doctors.

In Europe and the United States of America, malaria and tuberculosis have been conquered, they don’t exist but in the Third World, they claim at least 5 million victims every year.

HIV and AIDS patients live longer like any normal human being in the developed countries, while in Africa, thousands of Aids patients die yearly.

This health crisis should have inspired African leaders to invest more into health and the only way the face of Ghanaian hospitals could be lifted is by banning the politicians from seeking medical attention abroad.

As of now, there are medical facilities abandoned by the NPP government because they were started by the former government, the NDC. These abandoned projects are for Ghanaians for God’s sake.

This is how ‘intelligent’ NPP supporters and tribalistic Akyem folks want the country to develop, yet when the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta was sick he left Ghana to seek medical treatment in America.

Why are we angry if Africa is being referred to as a ‘shithole nation?’ In fact, we are more than a ‘shithole nation,’ the current political situation under Nana Akufo Addo is the best example.

Columnist: Joel Savage