Health Personnel asked to Treat Clients with Care.

Bolgatanga, Nov. 28 GNA - The Board of Directors of the Bolgatanga Municipal Mutual Health Insurance Scheme on Thursday expressed concern at the careless way folders of their clients were left all over the floor at the hospital making it difficult to trace them when needed. This problem sometimes forced the clients to send their folders home or end up collecting multiple folders because previous ones were missing, thereby losing their health history.

The Very Reverend Fr. Moses Akebule, Bolgatanga Cathedral Administrator, who is also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Insurance Scheme, said apart from the problem posing so much cost to the Scheme, as they had to make new folders to replace missing ones, patients also lost their medical history which was not good for thorough diagnoses of their health status.

Very Rev. Fr. Akebule was speaking on behalf of the Board during its Annual General meeting at Bolgatanga.

He said the scheme was doing well, and there had been a significant increase in registration and the compilation of data and appealed to the Municipal Assembly to put up a spacious building that would adequately house it.

Very Rev. Fr. Akebule said the Scheme had registered 78,537 people, making up 52.7 per cent of the population of the Bolgatanga Municipality and the Talensi-Nabdam District, the coverage area. It had also collected an amount of 2.4 Billion Cedis from the National Health Insurance Council being the allocation sent on behalf of the exempt category which included the Social Security and National Insurance Trust contributors, the aged and children below 18 years. So far, the Scheme had made a total payment of 8.2 Billion cedis as claims to service providers, including 15 health centres and two other private health Centres, he said.

Mr Isaac Nsoh Amoah, Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive, noted that certain drugs prescribed for patients were not available at the health centres and were too expensive at private pharmacies. He said insured clients were complaining of the disrespectful attitude of health workers towards them and appealed to all health personnel to adhere by the ethics of their profession so as to make the scheme beneficial to all.

The Municipal Chief Executive said a lot more people were willing to register with the Scheme but had no money; "I am, therefore, appealing to resourceful individuals and nongovernmental organisations to go to the assistance of the poor to enable them to register with the Scheme.

Mr Amoah commended personnel of the Scheme for working hard and also thanked service providers for cooperating with the Scheme. The people, including chiefs and elders of communities, who were present for the meeting, complained of the three months waiting period before a registered person could get a card. They asked that something be given to clients who had paid and registered but had to wait, to certify that they were genuine clients so they could receive free medical care.