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| Dignitaries at the Conference |
To
ensure equity in health care
coverage, and safeguard access to healthcare services as well as financial risk
protection against the cost of quality healthcare, Government has been
entreated to prioritise the retooling of the National Health Insurance Scheme
(NHIS).
Most Rev. Philip Naameh,
Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale, and President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’
Conference (GCBC), recently said that “in its present state, the NHIS needs to
be strengthened to enable it to respond to the needs and demands of patients,
public and service providers”.
The Archbishop made the appeal at
the 52nd Annual Conference of the Christian Health Association of
Ghana (CHAG) in Tamale recently, under the theme: Ghana’s Journey towards Universal Health Coverage: The Role of
CHAG.
By strengthening the NHIS, the
Archbishop argued that it will enable the National Health Authority to fulfill its
legitimate obligations to Service Providers on time, in terms of prompt
reimbursements and payment of economic tariff structure, which would serve as
an enabler and co-driver to the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
in Ghana.
The Archbishop said “the UHC
journey is only possible when dedicated health professionals imbibe the
missionary spirit to serve needy populations in unreached segments of the
society,” and urged Service Providers to ensure efficient service provision
that champions the Culture of Health and promote a supportive environment.
Mr. Kwaku Agyeman-Manu,
Minister for Health, said in spite of Ghana health system having
infrastructure, primary health care, and financial protection, we still have
“massive problematic inefficiencies” in the health system that needs to be
addressed.
To this end, he said the
Ministry of Health is in the process of outdooring a road map to improve health
care delivery and the attainment of the Universal Health Coverage by 2030, and
invited CHAG to also make inputs into the roadmap.
He said plans were afoot
to put in checks and also clean the system of inefficiency in the NHIS so that
it offers the best to the public.
Similarly,
Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, CEO of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), in a
keynote address stated that UHC is a global phenomenon and Ghana is making a
bid to be the first sub-Saharan African country to achieve UHC especially with
its domestic resources.
She
observed that the NHIA and the Ministry of Finance have done an extensive
reconciliation and were paying outstanding claims to the health facilities up
to December 2018.
Dr.
Dsane-Selby further noted that her outfit has also started clearing the arrears
from January 2019 and possibly to March 2019, adding that payments would be
regular from there in a bid to catch up. “We hope that this will curtail the
phenomenon of co-payments which has crept in defeating the purpose
of NHIS and Universal Health Coverage” she stressed.
Presenting
his report, Mr. Peter K. Yeboah, Executive
Director of CHAG, the network has “with barely 7.5 % of health infrastructure in Ghana, in 2018, contributed 32.1% of national in-patient care/admissions and 22.0% of national OPD services”.
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| Peter K. Yeboah |
To ensure
Quality Improvement Initiatives, he noted that CHAG would scale
up the WHO Quality of Care Patient Safety Initiative in CHAG facilities and
support PharmAccess and other partners to embark on comprehensive quality
improvement programme for the entire network.
He
said in its bid to offer the urban
poor and needy access to healthcare, some Churches have been establishing
healthcare facilities in needy urban environments, adding that the intent is
not to duplicate but fill gaps and overlaps in access to quality service
provision and to complement government journey towards UHC.
The Executive Director, noting the need for CHAG to
reposition itself as a reliable partner in the movement towards making UHC a
reality in Ghana by 2030, called on member facilities to work together with a refocused
passion that reflects the needs of our clients, and a renewed presence and
visual identity to lead the national and international stage, backed by a
rejuvenated purpose to “inspire our clients, our staff and the community to
push for more”.
