Agona Health Insurance suffers setback

Agona Swedru, April 29, GNA - Participants at a workshop organised by the Agona District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme have expressed concern about the collection of money from pregnant women who delivered at the Agona Swedru Government Hospital.

They noted that even though it was a government policy that pregnant should not pay for delivery at government health facilities the situation was different at the hospital and wondered if the National Health Insurance Scheme would not be the same. The participants said this was making it difficult for the collection of premium from the communities.

Some Health Insurance Premium collectors also stated that because of the attitude of health personnel at the hospital people especially those in the informal sector had refused to pay the 6,000 cedis premium per month.

They noted that if the scheme was to be successful in the district, health workers had to improve their services and appealed to the District Director of Health Service to monitor their activities at the hospital.

Mrs Angelina Bolton, Director of Nursing Services of the hospital who was a participant explained that pregnant women were asked to pay for delivery because Government allocation for the purpose was not adequate and had been exhausted.

She said the hospital was under severe pressure because women from the Eastern, Greater Accra and the Western regions delivered there regularly because of the free services and denied that health workers at the hospital cheated patients.