Peter Lanchene Toobu says his entire share of the National Health Insurance Fund will go to the Wa West District Health Directorate, alongside surgical instruments donated by supporters in the United States.
The Member of Parliament for Wa West, Mr Peter Lanchene Toobu, has released GH¢300,000 to the district's health directorate and handed over surgical instruments and hospital consumables to health facilities in the constituency.
The presentation took place on Tuesday at the Wa West District Hospital in Wechiau, in the Upper West Region.
Where the money comes from
The GH¢300,000 is the MP's share of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Fund. The NHIS is Ghana's public health insurance arrangement, and a portion of its funds is allocated for constituency-level health support.
Mr Toobu was blunt about how he expects the money to be spent. "I do not want a penny to go anywhere," he said, adding that every pesewa in the cheque should go towards helping residents live better lives.
He asked the District Health Directorate, the body that coordinates health services at district level, to account for the funds strictly.
The diaspora link
The medical items were not bought locally. Mr Toobu said they were sourced with help from friends and supporters based in the United States, whom he thanked publicly at the ceremony.
That detail will be familiar to many Ghanaians abroad. Diaspora-funded shipments of equipment and consumables have become a common way of filling gaps in rural health facilities, particularly in districts far from the regional capitals.
According to the MP, the donated items are meant for several departments, including operating theatres and outpatient departments, and should help facilities respond better to patient needs.
Conditions on the ground
Wa West is a largely rural district, and Mr Toobu used the occasion to acknowledge the difficulties health workers face there. He praised staff who travel to remote communities despite bad roads and transport problems, and those who keep services running through the rainy season when some areas become hard to reach.
He linked health directly to the district's economic prospects, saying that "a healthy district is a productive district, and a productive district is a developing district."
What he says comes next
Mr Toobu described his seat in Parliament as a responsibility rather than simply a political office, and said the donation was not his first contribution to the health sector in the constituency and would not be his last.
He said he would continue to mobilise resources from outside government to complement what the state provides, and pledged that the support would reach constituents regardless of their social or economic standing.
The source report does not indicate what specific projects or services the GH¢300,000 will fund, or give a value for the donated medical items.
Reported first by Ghanaian Times on 2026-09-18. This article was written for our readers based on that report. Follow the link for the original coverage.
