Nana Yamfo Esuako XI, the Omanhene of the Agona Asafo Traditional Area, has appealed to the government to do everything possible to sustain the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

He said notwithstanding the serious financial and other challenges facing the implementation of the policy; “we must as a nation, strive to adopt a more prudent and workable measures to promote the aims and objectives of the NHIS.”

Nana Yamfo Esuako made the appeal when he addressed the people of Agona Asafo at a durbar organized by the management of the Agona Swedru branch of the NHIS to educate the citizenry on the aims and objectives of the Scheme at the weekend.

The Omanhene advised the citizens at home and outside who have not registered with the NHIS to do so to safeguard their health.

He said in spite of the serious financial, logistical and other challenges, the policy had encountered within the past ten years of its introduction, the Scheme has played a vital role in the health of many Ghanaians, particularly the poor and vulnerable members of the society and needed to be sustained and improved upon.

Nana Yamfo Esuako, the guest speaker of the occasion, said there was the need for the NHIS card bearers, especially those in the rural communities, to ensure timely renewal of the cards when they expired as directed by the NHIS officials to avoid any inconvenience in times of crisis.

He called on accredited healthcare providers who were alleged to take advantage of their accreditation to collect huge sums of monies from NHIS clients to stop the practice.

Nana Yamfo Esuako advised clients who encountered such treatment to report such health providers.

"This will be the best way to weed out the bad nuts among the service providers in the NHIS,” he said.

Mr Josiah Doam Kittoe, the Manager of the Agona West and East Branch Scheme, said it was about time service providers put a stop to illicit deals, otherwise when they are caught they would not be spared.

He assured the clients of Agona West/East Scheme of continued excellent and reliable services of the workers and called for their cooperation and support to ensure smooth operation at all time.

Mr Kittoe said the management of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) was putting measures in place to remove all bottlenecks which impeded the smooth implementation of the policy to make it more acceptable to the people.

The Scheme Manager said the rolled out capitation system in the Central Region some months ago was being reviewed by the NHIA and advised registered clients in the Agona West and Agona East areas to use their NHIS cards to source healthcare from any accredited facility of their choice till the system was improved.

Mr Nelson Isaac Okru, the Public Relations Officer of the Scheme appealed to the people of Agona East and West not to play politics with the policy, saying that such behaviour would not help the nation.

He earlier took the people at the durbar through the benefits they would gain as contributors to the NHIS and urged them to help improve the policy by maintaining their patronage to the system.

Mr Okru commended the citizenry of Agona Asafo Traditional Area for topping the number of registered NHIS clients in the records of the branch scheme and advised them to keep it up.

Ebusuapanyin Frederick Yaw Appiah who presided the occasion commended the management of the scheme for their initiative of sensitizing people and charged beneficiaries of the policy to pass on the good message to their relatives and friends.