Health's report card: 17 NDC promises checked, one done, none of the new builds started

QMS has checked the 17 biggest health promises in the NDC's 2024 manifesto, Resetting Ghana, and Mahama's 120-day social contract against the public record. One is done, nine are in progress and seven have no public evidence of action. None is marked stalled or broken. It is the first report card in HOW FAR?, an ON RECORD series built on a tracker of 967 checkable promises across every ministry.

The money

Parliament approved GH¢22.8 billion for the Ministry of Health and its agencies for 2026, up from about GH¢17.8 billion in the 2025 budget documents. About GH¢16.25 billion of the 2026 figure is salaries and about GH¢2.04 billion is capital spending. The total does not include the NHIS or the Medical Trust Fund.

Done: the NHIS levy

The manifesto promised that all of the National Health Insurance Levy would go to health. Act 1132, which removed the NHIS fund and others from the earmarked-funds cap, came into force on 2 April 2025.

In progress

• Free primary healthcare. Launched on 15 April 2026 at Shai Osudoku District Hospital. By 7 September it was running in 135 of the 150 first-phase districts. Ghana has 261 districts. Government sources give end-2027 and end-2028 for full coverage.
• MahamaCares (Ghana Medical Trust Fund). Launched on 29 April 2025, inside the 120-day window, and passed as Act 1144 on 22 July 2025. It receives 20% of NHIS funds, and Parliament approved GH¢2.9 billion for 2026. In May 2026 the fund said about 50 pilot patients had been supported with just over GH¢4.8 million. No newer count has been published. The president of the Renal Patients Association told Rainbow Radio he was not aware of a single kidney patient who had benefited.
• Agenda 111. Asked before Parliament's Assurances Committee on 9 July 2026 how many Agenda 111 hospitals were working, the Health Minister answered "Zero", according to MyJoyOnline, after about GH¢4.8 billion spent before 2025. Cabinet has decided to finish 35 of the 111. Ten are in the 2026 budget, which an MP in the budget debate put at about GH¢100 million. The minister said finishing the 35 would cost "a little above 20 billion Ghana cedis" and declined to give dates. At the same time, GH¢600 million was budgeted for three new regional hospitals, and in September 2026 one site was handed to its contractor and construction began on another.
• Emergency beds. A man turned away by hospitals after a hit-and-run in Accra in February 2026 died that night. The manifesto had promised central bed and emergency bureaus in three zones. A pilot with one command centre at Ridge Hospital is now running.
• Health workers. About 7,500 health workers were recruited in 2026. Many of the 2025 payroll additions were recruits from before this government. The minister said in April 2026 that around 100,000 trained health professionals were at home.

No evidence yet

QMS found no contract, site or sod-cutting for the 500-bed children's hospital and fertility centre, new hospitals for Bawku and Yendi, or a trauma hospital in the Oti Region. For the promised northern dialysis centre, the only new capacity is an expanded unit in Wa, opened in August 2026 and paid for mainly by a charity and Upper West MPs. No evidence is not the same as broken: the government's term runs to 2028.