Causes hospital in Jirapa to return to cash and carry
The St. Joseph Hospital at Jirapa in the Upper West Region, is set to return to the “cash and carry system” of healthcare delivery due to the accumulating debt owed health facilities by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
Dr. Richard Wudah-Seme, Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, disclosed that as of March 2017, the NHIA owed the facility 14 months claims amounting to GH¢ 3,144,617, saying that promises made to pay the amount at the end of April had yielded no results.
He said this at the celebration of the World Day of the Sick which is always held on February 11 but the Hospital had to postpone its celebration due to certain challenges it encountered.
“We had assurances that by the end of April 2017, a significant reimbursement would have been done but I am very sad to report to all of you that as we speak there still have been no show,’’ Dr. Wudah-Seme stated.
He said as of May 2017, the facility had only been reimbursed for the months of January, March and April of 2016 with the rest of the months outstanding.
Dr. Wudah-Seme warned that the Hospital was at its wit’s end and would be forced to return to the “cash and carry system” if the claims owed them were not paid.
‘‘We are therefore sending notices to our cherished clients to prepare themselves for the return of the cash and carry system. We have been forced to take this painful decision due to the seeming inertia on the part of the relevant authorities.”
Dr. Wudah-Seme therefore asked clients of the facility to brace up to pay for services they may receive from the Hospital.
The 193-bed facility serves about 99,565 people and is a preferred choice for clients in the Region due to its strategic location.
Patients’ attendance has increased over the last decade with services provided by the Hospital expanded to include the provision of Neo-natal Intensive Care as well as Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Units.
Most Rev. Richard Kuuia Baawobr, Bishop of the Wa Diocese, prayed for the sick and the workers of the hospital.
The occasion was also used to inaugurate the Boards of the Hospital and the various Nursing Training Institutes established by the Catholic Church at Jirapa while hard working Staff of the Hospital were awarded.
Meanwhile, the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), has called for a national dialogue to review the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to make it more sustainable.
The Association said the exercise could bring on board all stakeholders to collectively and objectively find an acceptable solution to the perennial crisis confronting the Scheme.
“CHAG would wish to support the government to review, re-tool and re-engineer the NHIS to ensure that it becomes more sustainable, efficient, effective, equitable and accountable to the utmost satisfaction of all stakeholders comprising the government, NHIS Service Providers, the public and patients who depend very much on it,” the Executive Director of CHAG , Mr Peter K. Yeboah, said.
Reacting to the decision by the government to pay one out of the 12 months’ arrears the NHIS owed service providers, he said a robust and revised NHIS was in the best interest of all Ghanaians.
Mr. Yeboah said the NHIS continued to be one of the best poverty intervention strategies that the country had ever had, describing it as a national asset and the best hope for the entire healthcare system.
