Out of the nine District Offices of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Upper East Region, four have exceeded their premium targets set for 2018.

The four Districts included Bolgatanga Municipal, Bongo, Garu and Pusiga Districts.

Mr Sebastian Alagpulinsa, the Upper East Regional Director of the NHIA, who made the disclosure at the 2018 end of year performance review of the Authority held in Bolgatanga, added that, the Region achieved 87 percent of its 2018 premium target.

He said no district office had recorded less than 65 percent of the premium target for the year under review.

The review was on the theme, “The path to Universal Health Coverage in Ghana; innovating for a sustainable NHIS”, and brought together stakeholders in the health sector including Dr Winfred Ofoso, the Regional Director of Ghana Health Services, the Municipal and District Chief Executives among others.

In addition to all these gains, Mr Alagpulinsa stated that management was anticipating that with the renewal solution, the Authority could generate an additional GHC100 million, which can further help improve the finances and bridge the funding gap that was confronting the Authority.

“This additional GHC100 million to the Authority can also be used to pay providers claims, which can impact positively on quality health care delivery to our people, hence a critical drive for Ghana to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030.”

The Regional Director attributed the performance to a number of technological restructuring that the Authority was undertaking to make the Scheme more responsive and sustainable to improve health care services.

“I am reliably informed through the Ghana Health Services performance review meeting that, Bongo District recorded zero maternal deaths in 2018 and that could be attributed to the free maternal health care policy by the Scheme,” he added.

“It must be noted that it is the Scheme that granted the visa to all pregnant women to access free health care.

“It is our wish that, many more districts in the years to come will also record zero maternal deaths, which will further enhance reproductive and child health.”

The Regional Director, therefore, called for strong synergy among stakeholders to improve on the performance of the Scheme and added that Chief Executives of the various municipalities and districts should prioritize health of their people and strategically invest to improve it.

He said, “I want to use this platform to appeal to our Honourable Municipal and District Chief Executives (MDCEs) to support the Authority by either renovating the existing offices or building brand new offices for the Scheme to give the Region a better outlook.”

Dr Christopher Boatbil, the DCE of Talensi, pledged on behalf of his colleagues to provide the needed support to the Authority in order to improve on health care delivery in their various districts and help contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The occasion was used to award best performing districts and personalities, with Mr Barnabas Biyam, the Garu District Manager, winning the outstanding leadership award, while Garu District won the best performing and most improved District while Pusiga took home the award for the overall best performing district for 2018.