The President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Frank Ankobea, has warned that health service providers will soon be forced to abandon the acceptance of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) card and adopt the cash and carry system if the Government does not pay monies owed these institutions.

In an interview on the Happy Morning show aired on Happy 98.9FM, he stated: “Providers will be forced to take money upfront from patients before they render services to them. You know that in our society, if someone goes to the hospital amidst hardship, he may not have the funds to pay and that can lead to the unnecessary loss of life”.

He added that non-payments of services rendered by service providers could affect the service delivery.

“Some suppliers of drugs to hospitals will stop supplying because of non-payment and that will affect the patient. If you refer a patient to buy drugs outside that affects the healing process and so we plead that providers of the NHIS should be paid.

Besides that, as a doctor, if you treat a patient to his or her satisfaction, you feel relieved. As a doctor, even watching a patient in pain when you are unable to treat him or her is a mental torture to you and it affects your output”, he added.

The National Health Insurance Scheme was established by the Government of Ghana, with a goal to provide equitable access and financial coverage for basic health care services to Ghanaian citizens.