NPP COMMITTED TO BUILDING HEALTHIER NATION — AKUFO-ADDO (PAGE 16)

THE presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has said the party’s commitment to build a healthier nation where everybody would have access to quality health care was on course.
To achieve that objective, he said, a number of projects and programmes had been instituted in addition to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which he said had made a positive impact on the people, especially the poor.
Nana Akufo-Addo made the statement when he addressed the staff of the Koforidua Regional Hospital on Monday.
The NPP presidential candidate, who was on the last leg of a four-day campaign tour of the Eastern Region, was accompanied by Mr Alan Kyeremanten, , the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Afram Asiedu, and other executive of the party.
Nana Akufo-Addo said the party was of the view that every Ghanaian, no matter his or her financial position, should be able to access quality health care.
He said the programmes or projects which had already started in different parts of the country included the Begoro Hospital, a medical school at Cape Coast, a polyclinic at Koforidua, state-of-the- art hospital at Gushiegu, an accident centre which would be the largest in the West African sub-region at the Komfo Anokye Hospital as well as accident centres on the highways, especially in the Winneba area.
Nana Akufo-Addo further stated that a number of health facilities would be built at places such as Salaga, Tepa and Konongo-Odumase, adding that private universities would be encouraged to establish medical schools while medical professionals and other health workers would be better paid and housed.
A national ambulance service, he said, would soon be launched while steps were being taken to improve the sanitation sector.
Nana Akufo-Addo who dwelt extensively on the NHIS which he said had been embraced by over 11 million Ghanaians, said despite its successes, it was encountering challenges such as delay in the processing of applications and payment to health providers,and stated that steps were being taken to address them.
He condemned a proposal by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) to make the health insurance scheme a one-time premium which he said would endanger it, adding that the cost of such a system would be too high for the people and that would be a reversal to the cash-and-carry system.
Nana Akufo-Addo who stated that the good policies of the NPP had made it possible for more medical professionals to stay at post in Ghana, said on the whole the NPP performed better than the NDC in the health sector.
With regard to the December elections, he called on all Ghanaians to make it peaceful.
Earlier, the Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Obeng Apori, took Nana Akufo-Addo round some of the wards and the Out-Patients Department where he urged the patients to embrace the health insurance scheme.
Dr Apori said that most of the patients had insured with the health insurance scheme.