Tuesday, 18th February, 2025
Hon Duke William Allen Kwame Amoako-Atta Ofori-Atta
Fanteakwa South
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity. This is my maiden Statement in the House.
The subject matter is Sustainable Funding for outbreaks and Pandemics, which is becoming a national disaster. Mr Speaker, recently we have had the discussion on this Floor about outbreaks and pandemics, beginning in January 2025, with a specific reference to Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV). The issue was first raised by our Colleague, the Hon Member for Suhum.
Mr Speaker, there is a next step or position that we as a nation must take to make sure our safety, protection and safety of our people is a reality.
Mr Speaker, the GHS, along with the National Vaccine Institute, earlier last year and into this year, gave us assurances on the state of affairs of outbreaks and pandemics in Ghana. They have been very vigilant in doing this. In their lingua, they assured us that no unusual pathogens were in any reports from the screening schedules across the 16 regions.
We are grateful for their work.
Mr Speaker, the Minister for Health in the House today has reported one case of HMPV in Ghana. The need to reassess our position as a nation on how we prepare for such matters, whether as an outbreak or a pandemic, is key.
How prepared are we if there were an outbreak or pandemic as we do?
Mr Speaker, the solution is to have a fund dedicated to this cause, especially so in the absence of USAID funding, which was greatly beneficial to the health sector.
The purpose of the new fund would be;
1. Maintain financial support for disease and virus prevention activities by the Ghana Health Service, the National Vaccine Institute and other related agencies.
2. Ensure year-round preparation for prevention and combating outbreaks and pandemics identified by Ghana Health Service and its related agencies.
3. To assure and ensure continued research into the prevention mechanisms, including education and awareness and vaccine manufacturing.
Mr Speaker, our responsibility as lawmakers and representatives of the people, especially those of Fanteakwa South, is first and foremost to ensure their well-being and safety. That is why they have employed us to this August House. Mr Speaker, the nation must be ahead in matters of this nature at all times.
Mr Speaker, I would like to thank you for the opportunity.
Hon Frank Asiedu Bekoe
Suhum
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, I rise to comment on the Statement, and I think that on 21st January, 2025, I raised a statement on HMPV, and I rise to support the Statement that has been made by the Hon Member for Fanteakwa South that the state should have an alternative source of funding to be able to curb some of these diseases. Thank you.
Hon Anthony Mwinkaara Sumah
Nadowli/Kaleo
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement ably made by my Colleague on the setting up of an emergency health fund.
Mr Speaker, one indication on how we are prepared to take up emergencies in this country is what my Colleague is suggesting. The good thing is that we are aware that emergencies would always come, but we never know when the emergencies would come. And, as a country, we do not have any source of funding to fall on other than the Consolidated Fund to deal with emergencies. The call for the setting up of an emergency fund did not start today.
Mr Speaker, I recall that there was an opportunity in this House when we suggested that the COVID-19 levy that was placed on Ghanaians, be changed into a fund that would be used to finance emergencies in this country. The call has not been heeded to, but once a Colleague has raised this matter again, I think that we have to go back to the drawing board and look at how we are going to set up a fund. Several of these have come up, even in legislation.
The other time I had the opportunity to comment on the setting up of a fund for the Mental Health Authority. That did not find expression and, again, we questioned the then Minister for Health, and he indicated that they were working on the technicalities and other details to see how they could establish the Mental Health Authority fund. But as a fact, we will always deal with emergencies, and when emergencies come and we are not prepared for them, especially with funding and logistics, we would be firefighting. It is a good call, and I think that we should look at this dispassionately and think of setting up a fund to deal with health emergencies.
Today, we are talking about meningitis, as well as cholera. One of the challenges in fighting meningitis, particularly in my constituency, is that we have logistical and funding constraints. We are aware that virtually every year around October, we would have a meningitis outbreak in the Upper West Region, and my constituency is usually the hardest hit. As I speak to you, in week two of the meningitis, in my constituency, five people died out of 30 cases, and the case fatality was about 17 per cent.
Mr Speaker, the District Health authority did not have adequate logistics to go around and do the education. We need logistics, but we usually wait until we are midway through the emergency before we pour in logistics, but if we plan adequately, we know that by October, these emergencies would occur; the outbreaks would occur and we would deploy the logistics. They would need the lumbar puncture needles to be able to extract the samples to go for the testing to understand if it is really meningitis we are fighting with. Medications—Even logistics, such as fuel, for people to go around the communities and educate the people on the emergencies and outbreaks is a challenge.
So, we are waiting and depending on the mainstream funding that goes to these health facilities and authorities to be able to deal with this. I think that it is a good call, and it is something we should pay attention to such that in this country, beyond the statutory funds that we have, we have a fund dedicated to fighting emergencies because we know that health emergencies are with us, and they would always come.
Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Hon James Agalga
Builsa North
Mr Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, I would like to draw the attention of this House to the existence of a fund: a National Disaster Management Fund established under the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) Act 2016 (Act 927). We have not paid particular attention to the existence of that particular Fund.
Mr Speaker, in fact, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke, a special Fund was created, and donations were received. I recall that at the time, I made it known that it was unnecessary for that particular Fund to have been established because already in existence is a National Disaster Management Fund, established under Section 38 of the NADMO Act 2016.
With your kind permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to refer you to Sections 37 and 38 of the said law.
“37. Establishment of National Disaster Management Fund
There is established by this Act, a National Disaster Management Fund for the Organisation. 38. Object of the Fund
(1) The object of the Fund is to provide finances for the development and operation of disaster prevention, disaster risk reduction, climate change risk reduction, and other disaster management programmes.
(2) To achieve the objective of the Fund, the moneys from the Fund shall be applied to relevant activities determined by the Council.” Mr Speaker, most importantly
Mr Speaker, the mandate of NADMO is very broad. A pandemic is also a disaster, so the COVID-19 pandemic was a disaster. The mandate of NADMO is broad enough to cover all those exigencies that is why I argued, at the time the COVID-19 Fund was established, and inaugurated by the President, that it was unnecessary because if they had taken particular notice of what this House created under Section 37 of the NADMO law, we would not have found it necessary to establish such an ad hoc Fund. This is statutory, and the source of funding for this particular Fund includes 3 per cent of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF); we draw 3 per cent from the DACF as a source for that particular Fund; then we have donations and contributions from the public, et cetera.
Mr Speaker, we have a Fund for the management of disasters which includes pandemics such as cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM), COVID-19 among others, but the fund itself is starved because payments are not made regularly into the fund. The former NADMO Director General is here with us. I cannot see him today, but Mr Speaker, if you talk to him, he will tell you. Ever since we established this fund, deductions were made from the District Assembly Common Fund on only two occasions, amounting to about GH₵21 million only. We filed several Questions in this House directed at the Minister for Finance at the time to respond and give us indication as to why deductions were not made as prescribed under the Act. The same applies to the establishment of disasterrelated committees. When the Akosombo Dam was spilled, an inter-ministerial committee was hurriedly set up. But if you look at the NADMO law, such a committee already exists — an interministerial committee for dealing with all kinds of disasters.
Mr Speaker, maybe it is high time we took stock of the laws we have passed in this House and implement them, rather than taking ad hoc measures when we are confronted with challenges. I thank you for the opportunity.
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