Wa, May 12, GNA - District Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in the Upper West Region have worked out local arrangements that make it possible for their subscribers to access free medical services in any health facility in the region without necessarily being networked.

This novelty in the operations of the scheme is to ensure that beneficiaries such as workers and traders, who spend some time outside their areas of residence, would not encounter any problems in accessing free medical services anywhere in the region.

Mr John Bosco Zury, Scheme Manager of the Wa District Wide Mutual Health Insurance Scheme that comprises the Wa Municipal, Wa East and Wa West Districts, made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Wa on Friday.

He said 32,124 people representing 14 per cent of the total population of the three districts had registered for the scheme and 16,348 of them received their identity cards.

To date, he said, 4,478 subscribers benefited from the schemes with almost 207 million cedis paid to the health facilities in the three districts as claims.

Mr Zury said three schemes received a total of 666 million cedis from the central government for the payment of claims.

He said the scheme had created room for indigenes to access free medical services without payment of premiums but most people in that category in the three districts were not prepared to be classified as poor and officials from the schemes were sensitising them to accept that status and enjoy free services.

To get more people to register, he said, the schemes had opened registration centres at strategic locations such as, lorry parks, markets and out patient departments of hospitals and clinics. He complained about inadequate funds and logistics such as bicycles and motorbikes to carry out their operations smoothly, saying they needed 150 bicycles to distribute to their agents in the communities to motivate them. On office accommodation, he said 13 officers were crammed in one single room and that the problem would be solved when a 420 million-cedi office at Wa is completed. 12 May 06