Current State Of Central Medical Stores; Critical In COVID-19 Fight -STRANEK-Africa

STRANEK-Africa acknowledges how far the government has come in taking measures to control the spread of the pandemic Covid-19 (Coronavirus).

The Central Medical Stores is very important to Ghana’s effort at combating the novel Covid-19 and other unforeseen outbreaks. It also remains very critical as it lies at the base of our preparedness to control the blowout of the virus.

In January 2014, a fire outbreak took away our over GH¢200 million Central Medical Stores (CMS) in Tema. This attack destroyed about GH¢261 million worth of medicines and other consumables which seriously affected the healthcare delivery of the country. The Central Medical Store was the storage facility where Ghana's medical equipment and drugs were stored for onward distribution to health facilities across the country.

Following this, the Ministry of Health approved the reconstruction of the ultra-modern facility at the cost of GH¢8 million by NMS Infrastructure Limited, a British-owned construction firm. Up till now, we do not know the state of Ghana’s medical reserve and supplies.

STRANEK-Africa is of the view that we cannot as a country relies on our neighbours or allies in times like these especially when they are faced with similar challenges and uncertainties. A typical example is the neglect and deaf ears turned on Italy’s call for medical assistance by EU Member Countries even when they needed them most (A time severely hit by Covid-19).

We however commend the Government of Ghana in initiating steps to bring together all locally manufacturing pharmaceutical companies to harness their capacities to produce locally what we need in case we are confronted with the Italy experience. We are hopeful that the government will walk it’s talk in supporting them financially.

STRANEK-Africa makes a passionate call on Parliament of Ghana to summon the Minister of Health to present progress on the state of Ghana’s medical reserve and supplies in the wake of this Covid-19 pandemic. This will help us as a country in assessing our capacity in dealing with this outbreak.

The government of Ghana should as well bring on board, local companies that can produce ventilators in support of the fight against COVID-19 just as it is being done in the United Kingdom, the United States of America among other countries.

We should all get involved in building our motherland.

Signed.

Emmanuel Osei

Director of Policy and Political Affairs

Nii Tettey Tetteh

Executive Director

[email protected]