Health News of Saturday, 22 August 2020

Source: classfmonline.com

John Mahama put NHIA in ICU, Akufo-Addo rescued it - Okoe-Boye

Deputy Health Minister, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye Deputy Health Minister, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye

Within his first term of office, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo rescued the struggling National Health Insurance Scheme from intensive care that it had been put by the previous Mahama administration, Deputy Health Minister Dr Bernard Oko-Boye has said.

The “Akufo-Addo government resuscitated an NHIA that had been admitted to the ICU”, Dr Oko-Boye said at the launch of the governing New Patriotic Party’s 2020 manifesto in the Central Region.

The Ledzokuku MP said: “Incontrovertibly, it has taken the strong Akufo-Addo-tailored economy to wake up structures that have been asleep and has used *929# to wipe out long queues that had choked out NHIA district offices all in pursuit of NHIS card renewal”.

“This is the power of digital infrastructure”, he said.

Also, he noted that: “90,696 health personnel were recruited in the first term of the Akufo-Addo government”.

He added: “Never in the history of this country have so many people been offered so much opportunity to serve in the health sector in so short a time”.

Concerning health infrastructure, Dr Oko-Boye said: “The sick La General Hospital structure is about to be refurbished and expanded into an ultramodern 160-bed facility”.

“The 44-year-old maternity and children’s block at KATH, a facility that has been abandoned for 44 years, more than my age, has, today, been awoken by the life-injecting Akufo-Addo touch and is today receiving the attention that will transform it into a 750-bed facility in 36 months”.