MPs call for immediate action to save Techiman Hospital

Tamale, June 16, GNA - The Parliamentary Committee on Health on Saturday called on the authorities of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in Techiman to honour its debt obligation to the Techiman Hospital to keep it running.

Mr. Mathias Asoma Puozaa, MP for Nadowli East and leader of a Parliamentary delegation, which was in Tamale, told the Ghana News Agency that the NHIS owed the hospital GH¢ 300,000, out of which only GH¢50,000 had been paid.

He emphasised that, the hospital depended on the revenues it collected for the services it had provided. Mr. Puozaa said the committee discovered this when it paid an official visit to update itself on the operations of the NHIS in the Northern and Brong Ahafo Regions.

He said the committee was however, impressed about the general work of the scheme in the two regions adding, "all schemes the delegation has visited have registered more than 50 per cent of its population." The delegation visited schemes in Techiman, Kintampo, Jaman, Savelugu/ Nanton and Tamale Metropolitan Assemblies. At the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Mr. Iddrisu Tanko, the NHIS Coordinator, told the delegation that due to the high patronage of the scheme, there was pressure on the already under-staffed hospital as more people were seeking medical attention. Alhaji Mustapha Idris, Northern Regional Minister, who later received the delegation at his residence, called on the authorities of the NHIS to provide permanent accommodation for its staff in the region to enhance the work of the scheme since it had come to stay.