The Minority in Parliament has blamed the current shortage of vaccines in the country on government’s failure to plan ahead.

Bemoaning the risk of the shortage of vaccines on children in the country, the Minority described the current shortage as unpardonable.

Addressing journalists, on Tuesday, 7 March 2023, the Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, noted: “We started recording measles vaccine shortages around October 2022 and this is an emergency situation and the minister and the government have failed and continue to look on several months on.

“This is highly unacceptable especially when these vaccines are not over-the-counter medicines that people can walk in and buy them.”

He further noted that: “These vaccines are very sensitive and highly protected by organisations and states so if we don’t have the vaccines, all the children in this country are at very high risk, especially in the Northern part of the country.”

The Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament also indicated that the vaccine shortage is “unpardonable because, in the planning of vaccine procurement and its deployment, we are supposed to plan ahead.”

Meanwhile, the Speaker of Parliament Algban Bagbin, today, excused the Minister for Health, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, who was expected to address the House on the shortage of vaccines in the country.

The Health Minister who was invited to an emergency meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Health, Tuesday, 28 February 2023, failed to show up.

The Committee also invited the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and other institutions on the same issue.

They all failed to appear before the committee, except the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).

There is a shortage of vaccines used for routine vaccination in children from childbirth to 18 months in some parts of the country.

This is likely to increase the vulnerability of the very children the vaccines are meant to protect.

The Western, Greater Accra, Central, Upper West, Bono, Eastern and Upper East regions are among the regions affected by the vaccine shortage.