Former Health Minister Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye has strongly refuted claims that Ghana’s health data, managed under the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS), is hosted in India. He described such assertions as “completely false and misleading.”
His comments come amid ongoing tension surrounding the LHIMS platform, which the current Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, recently accused of being deliberately disrupted by its vendor following a standoff over a new maintenance agreement.
Minister Akandoh earlier stated that the government had requested the vendor to hand over full administrative access to the data and system before signing the new contract. However, after the vendor reportedly refused, the system went offline, leading to significant disruptions in hospital operations across the country.
Reacting to these claims, Dr. Okoe Boye expressed disappointment over what he called “serious inaccuracies” and “misrepresentations” about where Ghana’s health data is stored and how it is managed.
“I have listened to the minister, and I am very sad about how this issue has been presented. Many of the statements made are simply not true. I will not suggest they were meant to damage the company’s image, but they are completely inaccurate,” Dr. Okoe Boye said.
He clarified that Ghana’s health data—covering records of about 25 million citizens—is securely hosted on servers located within the Ministry of Health building in Accra.
Dr. Okoe Boye further explained that each hospital maintains its own local server, while the ministry’s central server serves as a backup system to ensure data continuity and security.
“That India comment is another falsehood. The central servers are right here on the first floor of the Ministry of Health. They act as a remote backup for all hospital data across the country,” he added.
The former minister stressed that Ghana’s health data has always been under the control of the Ministry of Health and accessible locally, insisting that public claims suggesting otherwise are not supported by facts.
He urged the public and stakeholders to focus on strengthening the existing digital health infrastructure rather than spreading misinformation that could undermine public confidence in Ghana’s e-health systems.