Tema, April 1, GNA - The Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (Rtd.) has proposed partnerships, commitment and local level action as the needed ingredients required for effective implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme.

He explained that the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) alone cannot implement the NHIS without assistance from partners at all levels.

He added that the commitment of Government and cabinet to the scheme's implementation needs to be replicated in the agenda of stakeholders at all levels of local government.

The Minister made the call at the opening of the NHIS Review Meeting on how to scale up the implementation of the NHI Programme at Tema on Friday.

He also stressed the need to translate the commitment of partners into local level action and called for effective planning towards that. The Scheme, he added could only be said to be fully implemented only when the public has been sensitised enough to know where to register, and those who have registered could go to the accredited health institutions for services without paying from their pockets.

Major Quashigah hoped the meeting would tackle issues of various concerns including the uneven pace at which district schemes were being set up, lack of public information and education as well as the preparedness of both public and private providers to serve insured patients to ensure the full implementation of the scheme.

The Health Minister called on all districts to implement the NHIS by the end of June, this year.