Koforidua, Feb. 11, GNA-The Medical Director of the Koforidua Regional Hospital, Dr Daniel Asare, on Friday disclosed that the hospital is to integrate herbal medical practice into its operation this year.

He said however that the herbal drugs approved by the Ministry of Health were not covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). In that regard patients, who opted for the herbal medical practice would have to pay for the herbal drugs prescribed for them.

Dr Asare made the announcement at a press interaction in Koforidua, as part of the 2011 Annual Performance Review Meeting of the hospital. He said the 323 bed capacity was now over aged and could also not cater for the over-growing patient attendance.

Dr Asare noted that annual Out- Patient Department (OPD) visits had increased to 6.4 per cent.

He said the region needs an ultra-modern specialist hospital of between 400 to 500 bed capacity.

Dr Asare said during the period under review, the hospital was able to reorganize and reduce the OPD waiting time from six to three hours at the adults OPD and to between one to two hours at the children’s OPD. He said the hospital introduced electronic management of patients’ folders for easy retrieval through the introduction of bar coding of folders. That method was able to reduce waiting time at the records department from two hours to 30 minutes.

Dr Asare said currently, the hospital has the best laboratory in the country, which was classified as the World Health Organization (WHO) Afro Two Star Medical Laboratory.

He said the hospital is still working hard to get it upgraded to a three star laboratory.

He said the hospital was being managed from its internally generated funds. Dr Asare said 92 per cent of the clients of the hospital had registered with the NHIS.

He expressed worry about delays in the reimbursement of the NHIS claims adding that the hospital was yet to receive the claims submitted for September 2011.

He said the hospital hoped to improve upon skills and equipment for quality health care service, this year.