GHS shuts down National Health Information Systems over US$64,510 hosting bill
By Ashiadey Dotse The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has suspended access to several of its electronic health information systems nationwide after its cloud hosting provider shut down the servers over outstanding payments and administrative issues. The shutdown, which took effect on October 29, 2026, has affected the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), the country’s […]
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has taken several electronic health information systems offline across the nation due to a cloud hosting provider's cessation of services, following unpaid bills and administrative complications. This disruption, effective from October 29, 2026, impacts the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), the primary system for health data collection and management, as well as multiple other digital services employed by health facilities.
In an internal communication on November 2, Dr. Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, the Director-General of the GHS, informed regional and divisional leaders that the hosting company had deactivated all ten servers supporting the affected platforms. Despite this, Dr. Akoriyea reassured that no security breaches occurred and no data was lost, adding that encrypted nightly backups of every system remain current as of October 29, 2026.
Several platforms affected include the DHIMS2, utilized by health facilities for health information entry, validation, analysis, and report generation. The Planning and Budget Management Information System (PBMIS), alongside systems tracking family planning, HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and non-communicable diseases, have also been impacted.
This shutdown has hindered the sharing of birth notification data between the GHS, the National Identification Authority, and the Births and Deaths Registry. While some Android applications can function offline, their web-based services and system integrations are currently unavailable. To mitigate reporting interruptions, Dr. Akoriyea mandated health facilities and district offices to revert to manual record-keeping, instructing them to fill paper registers and monthly summary forms to ensure October and November 2026 health data can be entered into DHIMS2 once services are restored.
The Director-General outlined two restoration strategies: settling the outstanding payment to reactivate the current Akamai account, which would restore systems to their prior state without rebuilding, or acquiring new servers and restoring using existing backups, which could take up to six weeks pending server capacity confirmation.
Dr. Akoriyea also disclosed that the GHS is finalizing agreements with Akamai and seeking approval for US$64,510.95 to restore the suspended account. He urged the sector minister to expedite the approval process to expedite the resumption of digital operations. Additionally, the GHS is contemplating a future shift to a Ghana-based hosting provider, intending to run both current and new systems concurrently for a period to prevent further disruptions.
Written by urgent.news from GBC Ghana's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
