ONE of the most significant achievements of the Kufuor Administration in the health sector is the provision of affordable quality health care for the poor.
This initiative, which is being run through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) instituted throughout the country about four years ago, has made it possible for the sick, especially the poor and vulnerable to access quality health care services in government and other designated health facilities without virtually paying anything.
Under the system that has been acclaimed to be one of the best social service-poverty alleviation programmes in Africa, beneficiaries only pay a premium of approximately GH¢14 to qualify for free treatment for a year.
Such a laudable initiative, which has replaced the cash-and-carry system of which patients irrespective of financial standing had to pay before treatment at the state-owned hospitals, has now been made to cover the whole country with the various districts administering their own schemes but with directives from national headquarters in Accra.
Even though most of the district mutual health insurance schemes have performed creditably, that of the Manya Krobo District is beyond description, as far as its success story is concerned.
The area, which together with the newly-created Upper Manya District, constitutes one of the most densely populated political entities in the region, has so far registered 96,717 people for the scheme, representing 63 per cent of the entire population of the district. The figure exceeds the national target of 60 per cent.
Although such a high patronage of the scheme has increased hospital attendance, thus putting great pressure on the medical personnel and equipment, health facilities in the area, especially the four main ones, namely, the St Martins Hospital at Agormanya, Atua Government, Akuse Government and the Asesewa Government Hospitals, had lived up to expectation by taking care of the ever-increasing number of patients.
For instance, attendance at the Atua Government Hospital rose from 22,182 in 2006, to 33,789 in 2007, while that of St Martins Hospital hiked from 19,848 to 27,821 within the same period.
The Asesewa Government Hospital also had its attendance increased from 9,170 to 16,389 with that of the Akuse Government Hospital also increasing from 8,997 to 19,115, all within the same period.
Apart from that, the Regional Hospital at Koforidua and other health facilities in the area, also provided services to the clients, bringing the overall total attendance to 105,206 for 2007.
This significant increase in hospital attendance has led to the payment of huge medical bills to the health facilities concerned. So far GH¢1,138,399.32 out of a total of GH¢1,150,365.04 submitted by the designated health facilities for services rendered in 2007 had been paid.
Addressing the annual general meeting of beneficiaries at Agormanya at the weekend, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the scheme, Mr Francis A. Sackitey, said although the scheme had made a significant breakthrough by ensuring that the poor and vulnerable benefited from affordable quality heath care delivery, it had to do more by roping in more people, especially the poor.
He, therefore, urged the premium collectors to visit the communities regularly to explain the benefits of the scheme to them in order to rope in more people.
“We have made a significant breakthrough because many poverty-stricken patients, who in the past, could not go for treatment due to the cash-and-carry system, can now do that at the designated health facilities in the area”, Mr Sackitey stated.
The Regional Manager of the scheme, Mr Collins Akuamoah Danso, who represented the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Ras Boateng, at the annual general meeting, was full of praise for the Board of Directors for initiating good policies and innovations that had raised the enrolment of clients.
The acting President of the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, Nene Sasraku was also happy that most of the people, especially the poor, could now have access to quality health care.
He appealed to people in the area, who had not yet registered with the scheme to do so.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Mr David Sackitey Asare, gave the assurance that the assembly would offer the necessary assistance towards the sustenance of the scheme.
Although the scheme has made a significant breakthrough by bringing relief to the people, especially the poor, it is beset with a number of problems, which must be addressed for its sustenance.
The major challenge is double registration by some of the clients who manage to hop from one health facility to the other for treatment at the same period, resulting in outrageous increase in the bills presented by the designated hospitals.
Poor remuneration of staff at the scheme’s secretariat located in rented premises and the collection of unauthorised fees from beneficiaries of the scheme in some of the designated health facilities, which although had not yet been officially confirmed, are some of the challenges.
Realistic measures are being taken to deal with some of the challenges, especially double registration.
According to Mr Sackitey, a computerised system, which would soon be put in place, would deal with the issue.
“We are now computerising the system that would detect any fraudulent deal so it is in your own interest not to be involved in any malpractices,” Mr Sackitey stressed.
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