The Minister -Designate for the Ministry of Health, Honorable Bernard Oko-Boye has called on the Chief of the Defence Staff (CDS), Lieutenant General Thomas Oppong-Peprah at the General Headquarters on Monday 19 February, 2024.

During their discussion, Hon Oko-Boye called for partnership in health and medical issues given the lessons learned from the recent global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. He assured the CDS of his commitment to cooperate with the Ghana Armed Forces to operationalise military health facilities across the country and transition them into functional facilities.

He commended GAF for the professional role they played in delivering essential medical stores and vaccines to hard-to-reach areas as well as transporting cases during the fight against the COVID -19 pandemic.

Hon Okoe-Boye also presented a book he authored, chronicling Ghana’s journey and experience during the COVID-19 Pandemic to the CDS and officially invited him to the book launch at the College of Physicians and Surgeons on Wednesday, 20 March 2024.

“The book whose foreword was authored by the President and Commander in Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo presents Ghana’s Strategy and approach to the pandemic and serves as a guide for future public health crisis” he added. 

The CDS commended him for the infrastructural and logistics support the Armed Forces has benefitted from him and made an assurance to strengthen the cooperation. He also lauded his predecessor CDS, Vice Admiral Seth Amoama for the established collaboration.

Lt Gen Oppong-Peprah disclosed that efforts were underway to establish a Biomedical Unit in the GAF to deal with public health crisis that may occur in future as part of the proactive measures learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic. He stated that the collaboration with the ministry of health would be imperative in the operations of the Unit and capacity building for personnel.