Health workers asked to work to sustain Health Insurance Scheme

Ho, Feb. 17, GNA - Health workers in the Volta Region have been urged to work hard to help sustain the smooth operation of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

"I believe this is our social responsibility to mother Ghana," Dr Timothy Sewornu Letsa, acting Volta Regional Director of Health, told the 2009 Health Service Performance Review Conference in Ho on Tuesday. He said the National Health Insurance Scheme has helped the Ghana Health Service to achieve some feat in the region even though its inability to pay claims promptly tended to continue to affect the supply of medicines. Dr Letsa said under the Scheme, the per capita Outpatient Attendance (OPD) in the region had increased from 0.51 in 2007 to 0.78 in 2009. He said supervised deliveries constituted 32 per cent of expected deliveries in 2007 which went up at 36.2 per cent in 2008 and 38 per cent in 2009.

Maternal mortality ratio also reduced from 200 per 100,000 live births in 2007 to 180 per 100,000 live births in 2008. It again came down to 145 per 100,000 live births in 2009.

He said preliminary analysis of routine health facility data for 2009 showed that for most age groups, mortality was higher in the non-insured than the insured clients.

Dr Letsa said 80 per cent of internally generated funds came from insured clients. "From the above, it can be concluded that the National Health Insurance Scheme is working and producing the desired results," Dr Letsa said. Mr Elliot Akototse, Volta Regional Manager of the National Health Insurance Scheme said both the NHIS and the GHS needed to work together to resolve problems associated with the implementation of the Scheme. "Let us talk instead of taking our cases to the media'" he said. In a keynote address, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister Colonel Cyril Necku (rtd) said the NHIS had become critical to health delivery given its contribution to the health budget.

He said the regional coverage of the scheme stood at 64.65 percent. Col. Necku appealed to staff of the various Mutual Health Schemes and service providers to be honest, sincere and accountable and avoid practices which could collapse the scheme.