Egyapa Mercer clashes with Garu MP on TV over Ghana's E-Health future

A lawyer and a doctor locked horns on live television on Tuesday over the direction of Ghana’s e-health system, sparking a heated debate about the country’s transition from a privately built platform to a government-owned one.

Former Sekondi MP and lawyer Andrew Kofi Egyapa Mercer clashed with Dr Thomas Anaba, MP for Garu and a medical doctor, on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana hosted by Moro Awudu.

The argument centred on the government’s decision to phase out the Light Wave-developed LHIMS platform in favour of the state-owned GHIMS, which is currently being piloted.

Dr Anaba argued that GHIMS is giving hospitals a smoother, more reliable experience compared with LHIMS, which he said had long been plagued by technical difficulties. He maintained that the government’s system, though still rolling out, was already proving more user-friendly for health workers.

Mercer pushed back, insisting LHIMS had been functioning well until the Ministry of Health terminated Light Wave’s contract.

He accused the sector minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, of cutting ties with the company without providing a clear and defensible reason, despite the system already being in use in teaching hospitals and mental health facilities across the country.

He stressed that issues raised by hospitals could have been resolved through routine extensions of the contract and technical adjustments, rather than abandoning the platform entirely.

Mercer also questioned the ministry’s claims about the cost of the contract and whether any proper assessment had been done before discontinuing it.

Dr Anaba countered that the ministry had laid out the facts and that Parliament’s concern should be whether hospitals are receiving the services they are paying for.

The government intends to standardise electronic medical records nationwide, but disagreements over cost, performance and accountability remain unresolved.