<<Print>>

The Akwatiahene, Osabarima Kofi Boateng III, has advised the people of the newly-created Denkyembour District in the Eastern Region to register with the health insurance scheme. This, according to him, had become necessary, since the scheme had become the only means to access affordable and quality healthcare services. Osabarima Kofi Boateng gave the advice at a community durbar organised by the Kwaebibrem and Denkyembuor districts mutual health insurance Scheme at the Akwatia main lorry station at the weekend. The event, which was attended by a cross-section of the public, was to educate the people on the scheme and also to address inherent problems associated with it. According to the Akwatiahene, despite the challenges associated with the scheme, it was the best way to access quality health care as such people should desist from making derogatory remarks about it. The Eastern Regional Manager of the scheme, Mr Francis Asante-Mensah, told the gathering that the government had established offices in all the 10 regions to properly administer the scheme. He, however, indicated that malpractices associated with the scheme were being addressed with proper auditing. Mr Asante-Mensah said mass registration for the scheme was ongoing and indicated that its implementation had attracted representatives of similar schemes in La Cote d�Ivoire, Benin and Korea to learn from Ghana. The District Chief Executive for Denkyenbour, Mr Kwaku Ofori Amankwa, appealed to parents to register their children with the scheme. Dr Daniel Benpong, Administrator of the St. Dominic Hospital at Akwatia, said 5,000 pregnant women who registered with the scheme had not yet collected their cards and asked them to do so. He was, however, happy that the scheme had been able to settle fully the cost of services rendered by the hospital. The Senior Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, Mr Francis Oti Frempong, said all arrears in respect of payments for services rendered at the Kade Government Hospital and the St. Dominic Hospital had been cleared.