By Rashid Mbugri, GNA
Tamale, Aug.
23, GNA – The Social Enterprise Development Foundation of West Africa
(SEND-Ghana), through its People for Health (P4H) Project, has engaged
stakeholders on the registration of indigents onto the National Health
Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in five districts of the Northern Region.
The forum was
to highlight and discuss the district level targets for indigents’ registration
onto the Scheme, its achievements as well as the challenges faced in meeting
these targets.
The five
districts are Yendi, Tamale, Gushegu, East Mamprusi and Central Gonja.
The forum, held
in Tamale, was to help develop an action plan to provide solutions to improve
and meet set targets for indigents at the various districts with support from
P4H.
Participants
included staff members from the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the
Department of Social Welfare and some members of the District Assembly.
The P4H is
aimed at promoting equity and reducing health inequalities by strengthening the
capacities of governments and civil society organisations for mutual accountability.
It is being
implemented in 20 districts in the Eastern, Northern, Volta and Greater Accra
regions by a consortium comprising SEND-Ghana, Penplusbytes and the Ghana News
Agency (GNA), with funding support from USAID.
Mr Issahaque
Abdul-Latif, the Northern Regional Director of the NHIA, said the NHIS was
introduced to help reduce cost in the citizens’ access to healthcare services,
especially the poor and vulnerable.
He said even
though people in the Northern Region were benefiting from the Scheme, records
from some districts showed low achievements in the targets for registering
indigents annually.
He, however,
attributed the low records to challenges confronting the regional and district
offices and the Department of Social Welfare (DSW).
Mr James Sumani
Buah, a Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at the NHIA, said in 2017, out
of the set targets for the registration of indigents for Yendi, Tamale, Gushegu,
East Mamprusi and Central Gonja districts, the achieved results were 41.5 per
cent, 13.5 per cent, 5.2 per cent, 20.6 per cent and 5.1 per cent respectively.
He said for
2018, the achieved results were 48.1 per cent, 28.4 per cent, 17.7 per cent,
5.8 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively for the above mentioned districts.
Mr Buah,
however, attributed the poor performance to inadequate logistics,
transportation, poor network connectivity, abuse of indigent registration, and
poor collaboration between the NHIA and other stakeholders such as the DSW,
Ghana Education Service, and Ghana Health Service.
Some of the
participants suggested effective citizens’ sensitisation on the need for
indigents to register as well as strengthening effective collaboration between
the NHIA, the assemblies and the Department of Social Welfare.
They also
suggested quarterly engagements with stakeholders and institutions to review
their performance to ensure improvement in their records.
Mr Mumuni
Mohammed, the Northern Region Programmes Manager of SEND-Ghana, commended the
participants for their efforts and urged them to stay committed to the various
suggestions to improve on indigents’ access to the NHIS for better healthcare
delivery.
GNA
