NHIS owe Walewale hospital GHC2m arrears

The Walewale District Hospital in Walewale which provides services under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to some thousands of residents has for the past 10 months not been paid for its services.

The Walewale District Hospital last reimbursement was in July 2016 for claims for November 2015, thereby, affecting activities of the hospital.

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE has it that the hospital’s debt has accumulated to GH¢2million.

This was made this known at a durbar held at Walewale where the incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) of Walewale Constituency, Dr Sagre Bambangi, donated a brand new ambulance valued at GH¢90,000 to the Walewale District Hospital.

District Health Director of Walewale, Dr Abdulai Abukari, told DAILY GUIDE, “I will like to take this opportunity to make an appeal to the general public and shareholders for support and help with both drugs and non-drug consumables for service delivery.”

According to him, the issue has been a very big challenge to the facility because they are unable to buy enough drugs and afford the needed resources to operate the facility effectively.

He indicated that sometimes the hospital has to credit drugs and other materials from different institutions and because they do not pay on time, they are chased by their creditors

Dr Abukari appealed to the NHIS to reimburse the hospital to enable them to provide better and quality services to the good people of Mampurugu.

The district health director stated that the district had expanded health delivery located in communities far away from Walewale and, therefore, needs ambulance to facilitate referrals of emergency cases to the district hospital in Walewale.

Dr Abubakri mentioned that a 50-bed capacity children’s ward has been constructed for the district hospital and appealed to all stakeholders to support the facility to furnish the ward to put it into use.

When DAILY GUIDE contacted the Walewale District Director of the NHIS, Mr George, about the issue, he could not comment on the matter and asked the paper to contact the regional office.

Efforts to contact the regional office of the scheme proved futile.