Gov’t asked to extend NHIS to Orthopaedic patients

Professor Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, President of the Foundation of Orthopaedics and Complex Spine (FOCOS), has called on the government to extend the National Health Insurance Scheme to cover the treatment of orthopaedic care.

Prof Boachie who is also Professor Emeritus of Orthopaedic Surgery said: “If the cost of treatment is GHc 10,000.00 for instance, the NHIS could decide to take up GHc 2000.00 as the patient takes care of the rest, which we can help to make part payment and start a payment plan.”

Prof Boachie-Adjei made the call during a media tour of the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital located at Pantang in Accra as he decried the country’s low performance or attention to health care. He encouraged Ghanaians to make use of the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital in Ghana without having to travel outside. Prof Boachie-Adjei said the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital was open to solve all spinal and joint disorders – treatment hitherto done only in the United States.

He encouraged Ghanaians to take the treatment in Ghana because it was much less than outside the country to salvage musculoskeletal disorders. In an interaction with the Ghana News Agency, Prof Boachie-Adjei called on Ghanaians to embrace charity to help people with spinal and joint disorders to be treated due to the high cost of treatment. Prof Boachie-Adjei who started the FOCOS Hospital with volunteers from both Ghana and other countries has been treating the disorder in the country since 2012.

He associated musculoskeletal conditions in the country to the poor infrastructure, behaviour and the low level of education for especially sitting posture as well as poor squatting and bending habits. Dr Irene Wulff, the Head of Anaesthesia at FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital, advised Ghanaians to undertake regular checkups for early detection and prevention of spinal and joint disorders.

Dr Wulff expressed gratitude to both international and local sponsors who have been very helpful to the cause of providing orthopaedic care in the country and the sub-Saharan Africa. Since its opening with the state-of-the arts facilities and international team of medical volunteers, the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital has performed more than 1,000 complex spine and joint surgeries and has treated more than 27,000 patients.

The facility, which spends more than two million dollars on electricity annually, receives both local and international patients for evaluation and treatment. Prof Boachie has expertise in scoliosis (the lateral curving of the spine usually developing in pre-and early adolescent), kyphosis (an abnormal backward curve to the vertebral column) and spine reconstruction in both adults/paediatric patients as well render general medical care.

The Hospital performs world-class surgeries to correct club foot, complex spine- deformities and degenerative as well joint replacement trauma. It also provides Out-Patient Department (OPD), surgical, physiotherapy and rehabilitation, diagnostic services as well as community pharmacy and nutrition and dietary services.

The Hospital is a project of the FOCOS; a non-profit organisation established in 1998 by Prof Boachie-Adjei as an auxiliary of the foundation. FOCOS Hospital is sustained by donations, sponsorships and revenue generated internally through its outpatients and surgical operations. It intends to be an independent, orthopaedics and rehabilitation hospital providing free care to needy patients. Picture Caption: Prof Boachie-Adjei, Dr Wulff and Journalists at the FOCOS Orthopaedic Hospital