Private health facilities have made a passionate appeal to government not to leave them out of the distribution of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to frontline health workers in the fight against COVID-19.

Dr. Robert Sagoe, the Ashanti Regional Acting President of the Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners who made the appeal, said the private facilities were important partners in the fight against the disease and must be given the needed protection.

Speaking at the media briefing on COVID-19 by the Ashanti Regional Health in Kumasi, Dr. Sagoe said the private health facilities since the outbreak of the disease had been collaborating with their public counterparts to achieve a common purpose.

“In Ashanti Region, most of the confirmed cases that we have had so far called first at the private facility. Therefore it has become imperative for the private sector to be resourced in this fight,” he pointed out.

He acknowledged that health workers in the private sector had benefitted from various trainings organized by the regional directorate but underlined the need for some of the PPE to be extended to them as key partners.

Dr. Sagoe bemoaned how delays in payment of claims by the National Health Insurance Scheme were adversely affecting finances of private health facilities.

“One thing which is of constraint to the private sector is our finances. Because most of us see NHIS clients and we have not been paid for a long time, we want to appeal to the authorities to at least clear some of the arrears so that we can adequately prepare to fight this pandemic,” he said.

He assured that the private sector was in the fight together with all government and quasi-government facilities and that they would do their best to work on the same page to bring an end to the pandemic.