Health Ministry submits seven bills to cabinet

Seven health bills to change the face of health delivery have been submitted by the Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbour, to Cabinet for perusal and approval.
The bills include the much-awaited Mental Health Bill, the General Health Service Bill, the Health Professions Regulatory Bill and the Health Institutions and Facilities Bill.
Others are the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Bill, the Medical Training and Research Bill and the Health Co-ordination Council Bill.
Officials at the Public Relations Unit of the Ministry of Health in Accra told the Daily Graphic in Accra that the bills were prepared under the Law Review Exercise embarked upon by the ministry.
Throwing more light on the review exercise, a Public Relations Officer at the ministry, Mr Tony Goodman, explained that because of the multiplicity of laws regulating the health sector, Cabinet, in June 2005, directed that those laws be consolidated to reduce their number by grouping the various laws under specific subjects matters.
He explained that other health-related bills which were at the Attorney-General’s Office and awaiting onward submission to Cabinet were the Health Insurance Bill and the Tobacco Control Bill.
These two bill are said to be awaiting the finalisation of the Public Health Bill for them to be presented together.
Mr Goodman explained that the Mental Health Bill was treated as a separate piece of legislation on its own and was, therefore, not affected by the consolidation because of the uniqueness of mental health, as well as the human rights aspects involved in the legislation.
The review exercise became necessary because most of the existing laws in the health sector had been in existence since 1958 and, therefore, did not serve the purpose for which they were enacted.
There was also the need to provide for new legislation in unregulated areas of the health delivery system, he added.
The Mental Health Act (NRCD 30), for example, has been in existence since 1972 but has never been amended.