Minister orders Health Training Institutions to review fees

Accra, Nov. 11, GNA - Dr Benjamin Kumbuor, Presidential nominee for the Minister of Health on Wednesday, said he had ordered all Health Training Institutions to review their fees for approval.

The decision, he told the Vetting Committee of Parliament, was due to the high fees charged by the institutions. "Mr Chairman, I must state here that the high fees they floated out for students to pay were a unilateral decision by various institutions and not by the government as was being perceived out there by the public". Dr Kumbuor, who appeared before the Vetting Committee of Parliament for approval as Minister of Health designate, said in an answer to a question from Alhaji Mohammed Mubarak-Muntaka, Member of Parliament for Asawase as to why fees from Health Training institutions especially nursing schools were so high.

He said his outfit had received numerous complaints from the general public about the astronomical school fees of those institutions, which subsequently called for their intervention to make it bearable to the students and their parents.

Dr Kumbuor, who until his appointment was the Deputy Minister of Health, said his outfit had also embarked on a programme to re-engineer all the regional Rapid Response Ambulance services to ensure that people do not die of simple ailments or accidents due to unnecessary delays. He said the Ministry had also drawn up a comprehensive programme to re-engage all medical doctors and Medical Assistants, who had retired and were willing to offer their services on contract to reduce the high rate of doctor shortage in the country.

He said schools had been established in all the regions of the country to train Health Assistants and to increase the community based health projects as a way of reaching out to more people in deprived areas. On National Health Insurance Scheme, Dr Kumbuor said government was re-packaging the programme to seal loop-holes identified out of its implementation.

He gave the assurance that the one time NHIS premium would soon be implemented since feasibility studies indicated that it was workable and could be sustained. 11 Nov. 09