Apam, Dec. 26, GNA - The Medical Superintendent In-Charge of the Catholic Mission Hospital at Apam, Dr Charles Ntiamoah Takyi, has called on the government to allocate adequate funds to mission hospitals to enable them to deliver quality health-care to the poor in the rural communities they operate.

Dr Takyi pointed out that since mission hospitals normally depended on donor funding, which was not reliable the institutions found it very difficult to meet even their utility and other bills.

He said that since mission hospitals had over the years proved to be reliable and dedicated they must be allocated enough funds from the national coffers to supplement what they got from the donor agencies and organizations.

Dr Takyi was interacting with newsmen at Apam on the free medical care scheme for pregnant women introduced about two years ago. The interview preceded the annual management meeting of the hospital during which sectional heads pledged their commitment in helping the country to achieve its health delivery goals. He noted that had it not been for mission hospitals many poor people living in remote areas would not get access to health-care. Dr Takyi said with the introduction of the free health-care delivery for expectant women the workload of maternity department of the hospital had increased by more than 78 percent.

He said funds allocated by the Government for the purpose was inadequate and had to be topped up to enable the Hospital to cope with the increasing number of deliveries.

Dr Takyi said investigations had shown that following the introduction of the free delivery scheme non-resident citizens had adopted the practice of sending their pregnant wives home to deliver, adding that, this was the reason for the increase in the number of deliveries.

He said that the cut-off point directed by the Ministry of Health for the free delivery system was also a problem for operators of the scheme in mission hospitals.

The Medical Superintendent explained that the 80,000 cedis and 120,000 cedis for the normal and caesarean deliveries were woefully inadequate taking into consideration the medication needed for the proper care of women after delivery.

Dr Takyi called on the government to take a second look to come out with a revised health delivery fund allocation system to provide relief for mission hospitals, which did not submit any financial burden to the Government for re-imbursement.