Former Minister for Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has strongly defended the integrity of the National e-Health Project and the work of Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions Ltd, describing recent allegations by the current Health Minister as a deliberate attempt to discredit a successful Ghanaian-led initiative.

In a detailed statement titled “The LHIMS Controversy: A Case of Giving the Dog a Bad Name to Hang It,” Dr. Okoe Boye outlined the background, achievements, and current challenges of the project, which was launched in 2016 to digitise and interconnect all government health facilities under the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS).

The former Minister explained that the project began with a pilot phase covering 25 facilities in the Central Region, under a contract between the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Lightwave e-Healthcare Solutions Ltd.

Following its success, the MoH secured approval in 2018 from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for a nationwide rollout valued at US$100 million after a value-for-money audit.

The contract, signed in March 2019, covered:

Networking 950 health facilities,

Training over 150,000 health workers, and

Continuous support and maintenance services.

Despite delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and logistical challenges, Dr. Okoe Boye said Lightwave had successfully digitised:

4 Teaching Hospitals,

6 Regional Hospitals,

243 District Hospitals,

2 Psychiatric Hospitals,

49 Polyclinics, and

157 Health Centres.

He noted that payments totalling US$76.99 million — representing 62% from the MoF and 38% from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) — had been made, leaving US$23 million outstanding.

Dr. Okoe Boye accused the current Health Minister of peddling falsehoods about the project, outlining several “inaccurate” claims:

Claim that Lightwave is a foreign company — He clarified that Lightwave is wholly Ghanaian-owned and was incorporated in 2015.

Claim that the company shut down the system — He said Lightwave only notified the Ministry of the expiry of its contract and requested a renewal, which was denied without due process.

Claim that Ghana’s health data is stored in India — He explained that all patient data is stored on local servers in health facilities and backed up at the MoH’s own data centre in Accra.

Claim of inferior hardware supply — The contract, he said, required meeting technical specifications, which Lightwave satisfied.

Claim that a new system, GHIMS, would ensure Ghana owns its data — Dr. Okoe Boye pointed out that Ghana already owns its health data, and GHIMS is also a private company, not a government-owned entity.

The former Minister expressed concern over what he called a “unilateral and opaque process” through which the Ministry terminated Lightwave’s contract and replaced it with GHIMS without resolving contractual disputes or sharing audit findings.

He warned that replacing a functioning nationwide system with a new, untested one could jeopardise healthcare delivery, risk data loss for over 25 million Ghanaians, and lead to wasteful duplication of costs.

“If the new vendor truly possesses superior capacity, the logical approach would be to assign them the remaining 500 facilities, not to repeat work already completed,” he stated.

Dr. Okoe Boye called on the Chief of Staff to intervene and mediate between the Ministry of Health and Lightwave to ensure a transparent resolution.

“After investing over US$73 million, training tens of thousands of staff, and connecting hundreds of facilities, Ghana cannot afford to discard a working national system for political or commercial motives,” he cautioned.

He concluded that the current controversy represents a “manufactured storm” aimed at undermining a successful national digital health initiative, urging the government to protect the country’s investment and maintain continuity in Ghana’s healthcare digitisation agenda.