Lightwave E-Healthcare Solutions Limited has issued a strong rebuttal to allegations made by Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh regarding the management of Ghana’s National E-Healthcare Programme and the Lightwave Health Information Management System (LHIMS).
In a detailed statement released on Thursday, October 30, the company accused the minister of making “false and misleading” claims that distort facts and risk undermining Ghana’s e-health digitisation progress.
Responding to the minister’s assertion that Ghanaian electronic medical records were being “managed from India” without the ministry’s access, Lightwave said the statement was completely untrue.
“The electronic health data of patients generated through the programme remain the exclusive property of the Ministry of Health,” the company stated. “All data is stored in a central repository located at the Ministry’s data centre in Accra—not in India or any foreign jurisdiction.”
Lightwave clarified that while the ministry owns the health data, the LHIMS software is the company’s intellectual property, licensed to the government under a formal contract.
The company also dismissed the minister’s claim that it had received 77% of a $100 million contract sum while completing less than half of the project, calling the figures misleading.
Lightwave explained that the contract’s 950 health facilities carried different weights and cost allocations.
“Deployment in just four teaching hospitals accounted for 21% of the total contract value,” it said.
By the time the contract expired on December 31, 2024, the company said it had completed installations in all teaching and regional hospitals and 243 district hospitals, representing about 72% of the total project value.
The company attributed project delays to bureaucratic approval processes, late payments, and COVID-19 disruptions.
“The Ministry was required to pay within 36 days of invoicing but in practice took an average of 10 months,” the statement revealed. “These delays created severe financial strain on the project.”
Lightwave rejected suggestions that it supplied substandard or insufficient equipment, insisting that all items met contractual standards and were subject to inspection and warranty verification.
On the laptop delivery dispute, the company clarified that the contractual quantity was 9,544 units—not 13,172—and that deliveries corresponded to facilities where deployments were completed.
It further disclosed that the ministry still owes the company for eight months of post-contract work, contrary to the minister’s claim that all payments were settled.
Lightwave reaffirmed that over 200 facilities remain actively using LHIMS, including the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, and the Eastern Regional Hospital.
“The LHIMS has operated efficiently for nearly nine years. We remain ready to work with the Ministry to complete the remaining installations and ensure continuity of care for Ghanaians,” the statement said.
The company urged stakeholders to end what it described as “uninformed commentary” and instead focus on resolving the impasse to safeguard Ghana’s digital healthcare infrastructure.
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