New Abirim (E/R), Dec. 13, GNA- The National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) had been called upon to come out with better conditions of service for it's staff to attract qualified personnel to run the various health insurance schemes in the districts.

All the Mutual Health Insurance staff in the districts and regions have been receiving allowances instead of salaries for the past two years and were finding it difficult to retain qualified and other trained staff towards the effective implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme in the country.

The manager of the Birim North District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, Mr Julius Nelimor made the call at a one-day district health insurance appraisal meeting for the Birim North District at New Abirim on Tuesday.

It was organized by the Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) under the CEDEP Empowerment for the Poor to Participate in the National Health Insurance Scheme (CEPPNHIS).

He said, due to the poor remuneration and without any condition of service, the staff of the scheme were leaving for greener pastures abroad and other organizations in the country.

The scheme manager said, the scheme had registered 29, 952 clients, representing 20 per cent of the population of the district for the past two years with a total premium of 802 million cedis.

He said the scheme had received 2.1 billion cedis from the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) while it had spent 1.6 billion cedis for the payment of service rendered to 5,995 members of the scheme who had accessed health care from service providers of the scheme.

Mr. Nelimor appealed to the District Assembly and other NGOs for office accommodation and logistics to enhance the educational programmes of the scheme in the remote areas for more people to register with the scheme.

Mrs Matilda Nyantakyi Broni, Assistant Programme manager of CEDEP said the NGO, which is operating in the Birim North and Affram Plains Districts in the Eastern Region has formed Health Insurance Advocacy Committees in the communities to explained the health insurance concept to the people and encourage them to register with the scheme. She advised all residents in the district to register with the scheme to benefit from it since every Ghanaian is contributing to the scheme through the National Health Insurance Levy placed on some goods and services.

The District Budget Officer, Mr Daniel Akoto Attefuah said, the District Assembly had provided a vehicle, two computers and printers and 16 million cedis to the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme while efforts were being made to provide them with office accommodation. He urged the staff of the scheme to intensify their education for more people to register to increase their benefit form the NHIC. The Chief of Abirim, Nana Amo Kyeretwie III, who chaired the function, also advised all residents in the district to register to support government's effort to provide affordable health care for the people.