MORE ACCESS HEALTHCARE UNDER NHIS (MIRROR, PAGE 35, MAY 29, 2010)

From Tim Dzamboe, Ho

The Ho Municipal scheme manager of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Mr Mawuko Tsigbe, has said until the national health insurance scheme, only 20 per cent of the population had access to good and consistent medical care.
He said the findings, contained in the Policy Framework of the Ministry of Health on the insurance scheme, indicated that without the scheme many people were sentenced to death by poverty and people died unexpectedly as a result of the unaffordable cash and carry system that was in operation at the time.
Mr Tsigbe was delivering a paper on the topic, “Access to medicines: the role of the consumer in protecting NHIS” at a sensitisation forum on the theme, “Increasing Transparency and Accountability in Access to Medicines-The Role of Civil Society”.
It was organised by the GhanaMedicines Transparency Alliance (MeTA) Civil Society Organisations Group at Ho last weekend.
Mr Tsigbe advised the public to register early to benefit from the scheme and should refrain from rushing to register at the last minute when they fall sick to demand instant health and said it would not be possible to issue instant cards to access health care under pressure.
A pharmacist in charge of the Food and Drugs Board for the Volta/Eastern zone, Mr Geoffrey Arthur, asked consumers to get involved to get rid of substandard and counterfeit medicines.
He said the world was faced with the challenge because sophisticated means had been used to deceive the public to make them consume counterfeit and substandard drugs.
He, therefore, advised that they should patronise drugs from only licensed facilities and should avoid buying from drug peddlers, warning that online drugs should not be purchased.
In a brief introduction, the national co-ordinating organiser of Ghana MeTA Civil Society Group, Mr Charles Allotey, said every medicine is considered to be poison and should, therefore, be taken according to the prescription from a medical doctor to avoid side effects.
The Co-ordinator of programmes and activities of MeTA, Mr Ralf Ahiabu, said the association aims at developing a holistic network with the view to reaching out to communities at the grassroots.
In a welcoming address, the Volta Region MeTA Co-ordinator, Mrs Joycelyn Akorfa Ochlich, said Medicines Transparency Alliance operated on pilot basis in seven countries with international support from the UK Department for International Development, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.