Hospitals Freeze Feeding For Patients Under NHIS

Majority of health facilities in the country are denying clients the full benefits of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Even though the benefit package includes free feeding for in-patients who are insured and are using NHIS accredited facilities, the hospitals do not provide them such services. This was contained in a survey conducted by Send-Ghana on �Halting Needless Death of Women: the Need for priority Investments in Maternal Healthcare Delivery in Ghana �across some selected districts in the country. Explaining the report to the Daily Heritage in an interview, the country director of Send-Ghana, George Osei-Bempeh, said pregnant women and post-partum women registered with the NHIS continue to pay for some services including medicines, ultra sound scans and laboratory examinations. �What is more worrying is that demands for pregnant women to provide items such as dettol, blades, soap and rubber sheets sometimes deter them from accessing the facilities for supervised delivery,� he added He noted that the budget credibility of the health sector is often undermined as a result of inadequate and untimely release of funds from government and other sources, as well as actual expenditure on maternal health as compared to other allocations. Mr. Osei-Bempeh pointed out that for the past four years, 50 percent of the health directorates have not receive funds from neither government nor metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to support maternal healthcare provision. He expressed worry that Agona East, Amansie West, East Mamprusi and Kpandai district have no district hospitals despite their huge population. �Residents, including pregnant women have to travel long distances to access medical care,� he stressed. According to him with the exception of Agona East and East Mamprusi, remaining districts did not have full complements of health professionals who support family planning and maternal healthcare service provision. �Agona East and East Mamprusi have no medical doctors, Suhum has no medical assistants while Kpandai can boast of only three midwives even though they require 40,� the Send-Ghana country director observed. He recommended that government should increase its financial commitments for investments and goods and services which support maternal healthcare and family planning services. �For the NHIS to serve its full purpose of providing free delivery serves to women, the Ghana Health Service should encourage health facilities to provide at least one nutritious meal for women who have given birth,� he added.