Chereponi (NR), Oct. 21, GNA - Most people in Chereponi do not patronize the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because there is no office to register clients in the district.

Alhaji Seidu Issah Abah, District Chief Executive for Chereponi, who announced this during the second session of the Assembly, appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority to open an office in the district. He said ever since Chereponi was carved out of the Saboba district, no avenue had been created in Chereponi to ensure that people registered on daily basis but had to rely on personnel from Saboba to register them. He said movement of personnel from the NHIS at Saboba to register clients at Chereponi had also been hampered by poor roads, lack of transport and excessive rainfall and that the continuous absence of an office in Chereponi would render the NHIS ineffective in the district. He said the number of people registered with the scheme only represented about 16.7 per cent of the total population of Chereponi, which was nothing to write home about.

Alhaji Abah also expressed concern about the absence of an ambulance for the Chereponi Health centre saying: "The only ambulance in the district was involved in an accident last September worsening the already grave situation."

He said accident patients in critical conditions were often put on passenger vehicles or transported on motorbikes to the Yendi District Hospital.

He appealed to the relevant bodies to help the district with an ambulance to safe lives and also appealed for Cuban doctors to be posted to the Health centre, which had attained the status of a Polyclinic to help improve conditions in the area.