Bolgatanga, June 12, GNA - The District Director of Health Services (DDHS) Group, at the weekend called on the Ghana Health Service to expedite action on the training of health personnel to adequately prepare them to meet the demands of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

They expressed concern at the slow pace at which personnel who were service providers were being prepared for the scheme and said the NHIS would pose a big challenge that needed to be met effectively.

The group, made up of 166 District Directors of Health Service, made the call in a communiqu=E9 issued at the end of the 12th annual District Directors of Health Services Conference at Bolgatanga under the theme "Operationalization of the Ghana National Health Insurance Scheme".

It urged government to spell out the various roles of all stakeholders in the NHIS at the district level to forge co-operation among them.

The communiqu=E9, which was read by the Chairman of the group, Dr Alexis Nang-Beifubah, also called on government to review the policy, that exclude certain groups of people from paying medical bills, before the NHIS was implemented and to ensure that the backlog of exemption bills were paid.

The group requested the authorities to improve Health facilities in the districts to meet the needs of the people and to standardise user fees charged by health institution in the country.

It appealed to government to provide resources for the scaling up of Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) centres in the country to help improve the life of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The group pledged to work with all stakeholders to implement strategies to control the spread of the HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STI).