Minister Laments Abuse Of NHIS

Rojo Mettle-Nunoo

DEPUTY MINISTER of Health, Rojo Mettle-Nunoo has bemoaned the abuse of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) by beneficiaries calling for an attitudinal change to save it from collapse.

He said reports indicated that the scheme had recorded an 82 percent increase in membership but explained that currently, beneficiaries under the NHIS were exerting pressure on service providers and called on those abusing the system to desist from it.

According to him, beneficiaries were fond of visiting different facilities for treatment of the same ailments and receiving roughly the same drugs noting that these were some of the issues that constituted abuse of the scheme.

The minister who was addressing stakeholders of the health sector during a roundtable discussion in Tamale noted that about 52% of all drugs used under the scheme were for the treatment of malaria.

He however expressed worry that 50% of those drugs were prescribed to patients who had been misdiagnosed as having malaria.

Mr. Mettle-Nunoo observed that drugs under the scheme were being clinically abused resulting in drug resistance among patients and blamed the situation on the inability of medical personnel to properly diagnose ailments before commencing treatment.

The deputy health minister also disclosed that the region had recorded several motorbike accidents which resulted in deaths and injuries underscoring the need for bikers to always to wear crash helmets.

Mr. Mettle-Nunoo blamed the upsurge in road accidents in the region to the increasing interest among local youth in acquiring sophisticated motorbikes.

On the break in transmission of Guinea Worm in the area, the minister commended managers of the programme for their sustained efforts in fighting the disease.

He attributed the success to changes in attitudes among residents in guinea worm communities and hoped that the pre-certification processes aimed at getting the WHO to declare Ghana Guinea Worm-free comes off without a hitch.

Outlining packages available to improve health delivery, he announced that about 1,000 cars have already been allocated to the health workers on a hire purchase basis.

He explained that this was out of a consignment of 20,000 vehicles earmarked for workers under the ministry to facilitate their transportation but observed that a number of bottlenecks during similar schemes had affected their acquisition.

Mr. Mettle-Nunoo said the ministry was therefore reviewing modalities in the securing of vehicles for workers in the health sector in order to correct the previous errors.

From Stephen Zoure, Tamale