The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has been forced to suspend access to its electronic health information systems nationwide after its cloud hosting provider shut down its servers over outstanding administrative issues.

The shutdown, which took effect on October 29, 2026, has affected the District Health Information Management System (DHIMS2), the Service’s national health information reporting platform, as well as several other digital systems used across the health sector.

In an internal memo dated November 2 and addressed to regional and divisional directors, the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, said the provider had switched off all 10 servers hosting the systems.

He, however, assured health officials that the shutdown had not resulted in a security breach or loss of data.

“There has been no security breach, and no data has been lost. Nightly encrypted backups of every system are held outside the suspended account and are current to 29th October 2026,” he stated.

Systems affected by shutdown

The suspension has disrupted several operations across the health service.

DHIMS2, which supports national health information management, is unavailable for data entry, validation, analysis and report extraction.

The Planning and Budget Management Information System (PBMIS), used for accessing plans and budgets, has also been affected.

Other systems, including eTracker, the Family Planning and Health Care (FPHC) platform, Operational Training and Supervision Support (OTSS) assessments and the Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) tracker, are unavailable through their web platforms. Their Android capture applications can, however, continue operating offline.

The HIV and tuberculosis trackers, as well as the ISRS sample tracker, have also lost web access and laboratory integration, although their Android applications remain functional offline.

The National Malaria Data Repository (NMDR), the Events system for inpatient morbidity and mortality, SMS alerts, the transport system and the Community Health Information Management (CHIM) portal are also among the affected platforms.

The shutdown has additionally interrupted the data-exchange gateway responsible for transmitting birth notifications to the National Identification Authority and the Births and Deaths Registry.

Facilities directed to maintain paper records

To prevent gaps in health reporting, Dr Akoriyea has directed health facilities and districts to continue using paper-based reporting systems.

They have been instructed to complete registers and monthly summary forms manually to ensure that data for October and November 2026 can be entered into DHIMS2 once access is restored.

GHS pursues US$64,510 payment to restore services

The memo outlined two possible routes to restoring the affected systems.

The first is to reinstate the existing Akamai account by settling the outstanding balance. According to the Director-General, this would restore all systems to their previous state without requiring them to be rebuilt and represents the quickest option.

The second option would involve procuring new servers and rebuilding the systems using existing backups. This process could take up to six weeks after the required capacity is procured, leaving the systems offline throughout the reconstruction period.

Dr Akoriyea said the GHS was finalising arrangements with Akamai and seeking approval for a payment of US$64,510.95 to reinstate the account.

He appealed to the sector minister to support efforts to expedite the approval.

“Once services are restored, the Service will plan any move to a Ghana-based provider as a controlled project. That project will include a parallel run and a funded backup arrangement,” he stated.

Source: Myjoyonline