The Minority in Parliament wants the Health Minister to explain how an unsettled hosting invoice forced hospitals back to paper records.
An unpaid bill of US$64,510.95 has taken several of Ghana's most important health data platforms offline, and the Minority Caucus in Parliament now wants the government to explain how it happened.
The platforms were suspended on October 29, 2026 by Akamai, the technology company hosting them, after the Ghana Health Service (GHS) failed to settle the outstanding cloud hosting payment. Ghanaian Times reports that the shutdown has disrupted digital health reporting nationwide, pushing health facilities back to paper-based record keeping while the issue is sorted out.
What went down
The affected systems are not minor tools. They include the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), which is the main platform health facilities use to report routine service data, and the Planning and Budget Management Information System (PBMIS).
Also offline are eTracker, the HIV and tuberculosis tracking systems, and the National Malaria Data Repository, along with other health information platforms.
These systems are how Ghana counts cases, tracks patients on treatment and plans budgets. When they go dark, district and regional health teams lose their normal view of what is happening on the ground.
The Minority's questions
In a statement signed by Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie, Ranking Member of Parliament's Health Committee, the caucus directed its demands at the government and Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh.
The central question is one of scale. The Ministry of Health's budget rose from GH¢17.8 billion in 2025 to GH¢22.8 billion in 2026, yet a bill of just over US$64,000 was enough to pull national health platforms offline.
The Minority also pointed to timing. In October 2025, government announced the Ghana Health Information Management System (GHIMS) to replace the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS). A year on, the caucus is asking what has actually been spent on GHIMS and how far implementation has gone.
It further asked why financial and contractual arrangements were not put in place to stop a hosting lapse of this kind.
What the Minority wants
The caucus is calling for the immediate restoration of all affected platforms, full disclosure of GHIMS spending and progress, and an investigation into how the suspension came about.
It also wants an independent audit of Ghana's digital health infrastructure, hosting arrangements and data security, plus a sustainable funding arrangement so the situation does not repeat.
The Ghana Health Service has assured the public that no data was lost and that encrypted backups are intact. The Minority responded that keeping data safe is not the same as being able to reach it when it is needed.
The caucus says it will use parliamentary oversight to press for accountability from the institutions and officials involved.
