Appearing before Parliament’s Appointment Committee for vetting on Thursday, Dr Okoe-Boye stated the facility was a death trap.

As a medical doctor who worked at the hospital, he cited occasions where slabs were falling from the building.

“For La General Hospital, because I worked there, I have a personal experience of some of the discussions that led to demolition. When I was working in La, there were occasions while on the ward, a concrete slab would fall off the building and hit the ground. That structure was a death trap,” he said.

He added an audit of the facility further revealed it was not fit for purpose.

“I personally visited La General Hospital with Mrs Samira Bawumia, during my first term and made a case that there ought to have been some attention to the hospital.

“I’m happy to say that when we met the management of the La General Hospital, they told us that their major concern was that the facility they were working in was not safe for their working environment, and these were the concerns that led to a structural audit. The audit stated emphatically that it was not fit for the service,” he recounted.

The Akufo-Addo led government demolished the La General Hospital which is currently awaiting reconstruction in 2020 due to structural defects.

Former Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in the 2024 budget presented to Parliament, announced that contractors have started work on the site.

Subsequently, President Nana Akufo-Addo in the 2024 State of the Nation Address (SONA) pledged commitment to complete the hospital, stating an alternative funding has been secured.

Meanwhile, Dr Okoe-Boye has assured, “I’m going to work with the people of La and the neighbours to ensure the full completion of the hospital.”

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According to him, the victims are in dire situations, and sources of heat are very crucial to them in their difficult times.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) made the appeal on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme.

“Heat is powerful in such situations, and that is why campers always have a source of heat. Any source of heat is good, but in this situation, I won’t recommend candles or firewood. Even though there have been many relief items, I haven’t seen any cylinders, so I will appeal that we consider them,” he stated.

Dr Okoe-Boye further urged the victims to prioritise their health and make sure there is a bit of heat in whatever goes into their bodies.

“They must heat all drinking water and make sure every food they eat is warm or hot because the heat in the body mounts a defence against illness in such cases,” he added.

Dr. Okoe-Boye commended various institutions and individuals who have reached out to support the victims.

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According to Dr Okoe-Boye, this was during a conversation with the statesman when he visited his Peduase residence to mourn with him at the one-week celebration of his late wife, Theresa Ab Kufuor, on October 11, 2023.

“I deliberately went for the one-week in the evening because I wanted to have him time and talk with him, so I got to his residence around 5 to 6 when most sympathisers were leaving.

“Former President Kufuor asked me how things were going in the constituency, and I told him we were doing our best,” he stated.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme , the former Ledzokuku Member of Parliament, revealed that, their conversation was on honesty and transparency in a politician’s bid to succeed.

“He told me to let the people know who you are so that even if someone pays 10 times more than you in an election, they will still give it to you because they know what you stand for,” he said.

Dr Okoe-Boye emphasised that, the statement of the former President proves that money is not all when it comes to politics.

He cited how people paid money for political positions but were not voted for to buttress his point.

The former Deputy Health Minister is seeking to contest the Ledzokuku seat again after losing in the seat to the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the 2020 election.

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As a physician that consults at the Lekma Hospital, I joined the queue on the first day of the national exercise of deploying the vaccines.

I belong to the first group of citizens eligible to take the vaccine due to my health worker status. Other genres of citizens like the elderly ( 60+ years) and those with underlying conditions joined the queue on the first day.

After a week of vaccination, about 210,000 Ghanaians have embraced the opportunity to get vaccinated.

Unfortunately, there are still those who keep asking the question- should I wait for some time to see what happens to those going for the vaccines or just go for the vaccine now?

The AstraZeneca vaccine has gone through all the three necessary Clinical trials that must be conducted before giving it to people in any country.

Tens of thousands of participants took part in the phase three trials which were carried out to find out how effective the vaccines are in protecting the population against COVID-19 infection as well as COVID 19 related severe illness and death. AstraZeneca has an efficacy of about 70%.

This efficacy only speaks to the protection the vaccine gives from contracting COVID-19. That is to say if 100 people get vaccinated, 70 of them will not get COVID 19 at all.

The rest of the 30 can get COVID-19. Just ending here on the efficacy information leaves out two critical benefits that the vaccine provides; two benefits that have been established in clinical trials across different countries and have actually been confirmed in countries like the UK where more than 21 million have been vaccinated.

Taking the vaccine protects you from severe and critical disease should you find yourself in the minority who can get COVID 19 despite vaccination.

What it means is that you are saved from hospitalization and more importantly COVID-19 related death with the vaccine.

AstraZeneca vaccines might have an average of 70% efficacy against COVID-19 but its protection against severe illness from COVID-19 is over 85%, with protection from death nearing 99%.

The Pfizer vaccine produced in the US may have an efficacy of 94% similar to the Moderna vaccine but the good news is that both of them give you virtually the same result from AstraZeneca when it comes to preventing severe illness and death.

The Johnson and Johnson Johnson vaccine that recently got Emergency Use Authorization has an average efficacy of 70% like the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The phase three clinical trials done in South Africa with this Johnson and Johnson vaccine showed that rate of hospitalization fell drastically in those who got the vaccine compared to those who didn’t receive the vaccine.

No deaths were recorded in those who got the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

This information from the studies on the Johnson and Johnson vaccine validates one truth- WHICH IS – IT IS SMARTER TO GET THE VACCINE, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHICH BRAND, WHEN AVAILABLE THAN TO WAIT.

I know that in Ghana 85 out of hundred people who get COVID-19 will have only mild to moderate disease and these statistics has undoubtedly emboldened some people to say “let me just wait and watch”, with the thinking that should they even get the virus, they will be part of the 85% who do not experience severe disease.

A relative of mine got COVID-19 and experienced severe illness that could have killed him. He got it from a family member who only experienced mild symptoms when she had it.

The lesson is that should you avoid the vaccine with the thinking that you will be ok even in case of an infection, you can serve as a carrier who passes on the virus to other friends and family who might get severely ill and die.

So getting vaccinated doesn’t only protect you, it protects those you relate too by breaking the transmission chain.

I am vaccinated now so should I come across a COVID positive person who brings the virus in contact with me, two things can happen; either my vaccine acquired immunity stops the virus from infecting me or gets into my system but is unable to overwhelm me and land me at the hospital.

Since over 70 out of 100 who get the vaccine are protected from COVID infection, those people serve as barriers that break the transmission chain. When a virus gets to them, it ends there and doesn’t get passed on to the next.

So vaccination achieves a reduction in the transmission rates, infection rates, hospitalization rates, mortality rates and eventually will bring the pandemic to a stop.

The deployment of VACCINES signals the beginning of the end of the Pandemic.

What will make this end-stage shorter and less fatal is continued adherence to the mask-wearing and handwashing protocols since these protocols serve as an extranet catching the few viral strains that escape the wall of protection provided by the Vaccines.

It is the objective of Ghana’s government to complete this end stage of the pandemic by December 2021.

Hopefully, by this time, over 20 million Ghanaians will have been vaccinated and the transmission rate for COVID 19 will have neared zero.

I know the rollout of the vaccine will save us many more deaths in this end-stage but if we want to experience very low mortality or better still avoid any deaths at all , the mask-wearing protocols must be adhered to so that this last episode of the pandemic is made short and less deadly.

It does not take AstraZeneca or Pfizer or Moderna in particular to achieve a COVID pandemic free world.

Any of the approved vaccines will protect you from the Pandemic, keep you away from the ICU, save you from death and significantly slow down infections rates till elimination of the disease is achieved nationally.

I predict that this pandemic will end with this calendar year, 2021. This prediction can only be true if you take the vaccine and wear the mask.

Let’s help to make the prediction true because we can’t afford to have our cinemas closed and our hospitality sector on its knees in 2022.

We can’t afford not to hug our loved ones in 2022.

I guess the answer to waiting for some time or not before getting the vaccine is obvious now. Not a smart move to wait, it can turn out to be suicidal.

By: Dr Okoe Boye
A Former Deputy Minister of Health

According to him, the government has taken into consideration their concerns and has begun fulfilling some of them in the interim.

“It is not every item that has been approved. It takes negotiation over a period to get a final document that everybody is happy with.

“What I am glad about is that some of the things they requested for have been approved by the government,” Dr Oko-Boye told JoyNews.

Nurses on Monday went on a strike over benefits such as rent and transportation allowances. As a result, scores of patients have been left stranded while others were referred to private health facilities for care.

At the country’s number one referral centre, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, patients who had been left unattended, lamented the struggle they have had to endure.

The striking groups include the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Ghana Physicians Assistants Association and Ghana Association of Registered Anaesthetists among others.

The GRNMA is demanding better conditions of service from the government and hopes the strike would send the message and trigger an immediate response.

Meanwhile, Dr Okoe-Boye said that the government has been receptive to nurses’ demands and is hopeful their conditions will be resolved within 48 hours.

He stated that the government has no intention of fighting the nurses on their demands saying that “you don’t fight a workgroup that is not happy.”

The Minister added that “what I am happy about is that the attitude of the government has been positive.”