Health News of Friday, 16 September 2005

Source: GNA

Managers of HIS not happy with control of NHIC Secretariat

Koforidua, Sept 16, GNA - Managers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the Eastern Region have expressed their displeasure at the attempt by the Secretariat of the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC to control the day-to-day administration of the scheme in the region.

The managers said this at an emergency meeting of the Eastern Regional Network of Mutual Health Organizations of Ghana (GNEMHO) at Koforidua to react to letters they had received from the NHIC secretariat in September.

In a six point communiqu=E9 adopted by the scheme managers at the end of the meeting, the managers said it was improper for the NHIC Secretariat to direct the schemes to refuse assistance offered them by DANIDA since DANIDA is one of the development partners of the country. They debunked the argument that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Regional Team had imposed DANIDA software on any scheme in the region and said the facts on the ground indicated that it was DANIDA's Mckof software that is being used by the schemes in the region. The managers said the DANIDA software was more user-friendly and cost effective.

The managers also expressed their displeasure at the directive to them not to respond to an invitation to a workshop by their own organization.