Poor governance has brought back 'cash and carry' - Dr Afriyie

A former Minister of Health in the erstwhile Kufour administration has said that, the return of cash and carry at various health facilities in the country is as a result of poor leadership on the part of government.

His comments comes in the wake of warning by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) that the dreaded ‘cash and carry system’ will become operational once again in some medical facilities if the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) failed to settle its arrears.

Speaking to Rainbow Radio, Dr. Afriyie said, the issue is as a result of poor management and late payment of claims to providers.

He said, until government comes back it senses and take the necessary measures as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration took and pay the providers, hospitals will use the cash and carry system. He lamented that: "as a service provider, the last time i checked, the NHIS owed service providers for almost 9 months. I am very worried because we seem to be going backward in the things we [NPP] have achieved over the years because of the National Health Insurance. Government is unable to pay the arrears. The NPP demonstrated to Ghanaians that, they were capable of managing the NHIS. But this government has failed to manage from where we left.''

He also noticed that, it has reached a point where people could no longer buy medicines prescribed for them and so they throw away their prescriptions. Suppliers he added ''will not also give us drugs because we owe them so much.''

“If the facility owes me 8 months and cannot pay, and you are implementing the National Health Insurance, it is obvious you will say the scheme is collapsing. As a private practitioner i cannot go out of business so i have to negotiate with my patients to pay their medical bills. Due to the challenges confronting the NHIS, the health insurance registration centres, set up for registration is nothing more than glorified OPD centres in this country.''

The NHIS cards he opined is not popular because more Ghanaians have registered, since registrants have diverse reasons for registering and to add up to his argument, he said the system has failed because card holders are not benefiting from the NHIS package unless they top up when they visit the hospital, a practice he stressed is illegal and punishable by law.

However, government is to be faulted for that since it is the number one defaulter, he maintained.

''Government needs the moral fortitude to crack the whip on facilities that charges illegal fees. There are a number of hidden or unapproved charges at the various facilities that prevent poor people from accessing healthcare. But you will have to fault government for that.''

“The NHIS is a failed system because why won’t you pay me for 9 months and I continue to provide services? And for me, I am worried because it looks like the kind of gains and the quality of service that we have, the motivation to provide services is dwindling because the facilities don’t have money to run”.