Accra, June 8, GNA - The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with nine Mutual Health Insurance Schemes in the Greater Accra Region.

The MOU would allow members of the various schemes to access medical care upon referral to the Teaching Hospital.

The nine schemes were Ablekuma; Okaikwei; Tema; Amasaman; Kpeshie; Osu Klottey; Dangbme East; Dangbme West; Ashiedu Keteke and Ayawaso. Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, Chief Executive Officer, Korle-Bu, who signed on behalf of the Hospital, commended the various health insurance schemes for the initiative.

He underscored the importance of the NHIS in ensuring quality health care for all in the country and called on the public to get registered so as to qualify to enjoy its numerous benefits. He said he was worried about the low patronage of the scheme and pointing out that its full benefits could be reaped if it had large subscribers.

"The larger the number of registered subscribers, the cheaper it becomes," he said.

Prof Frimpong Boateng urged the various schemes to ensure prompt payment of claims, when it finally took off on July 1, 2006. He urged the Management of the various schemes to ensure that quality health care was given at the primary and secondary levels, as a measure to ensure an effective gatekeeper-system and also prevent unnecessary referrals.

He, however, cautioned that referrals should not be unduly delayed by health providers and thus proposed for a re-orientation of staff at all levels of the healthcare delivery system. Prof Frimpong Boateng said the KBTH had put in place measures including the setting up of a fully equipped NHIS Secretariat to implement the day-to-day decisions of a technical committee and the sensitisation of staff.

The Professor said four Departments 96 Maternity; Polyclinic; Surgical, Medical and Emergency (SME) and the Accident and Casualty - were chosen within the KBTH as pilot sites to ensure the smooth implementation of the Scheme.

"About 600 million cedis has so far been committed to the implementation of the sites, which are currently being used as training grounds for the core staff of the Hospital in the claims management procedure," he said.

Prof Frimpong Boateng mentioned that numerous concerns had been raised about the strict adherence to treatment protocols in tertiary institutions, since cases referred there were diverse and complicated. "There would be the need to develop tertiary institutions formally to complement the national Essential Drug List, which has been adopted by the scheme," he said.

He called for the consideration and inclusion of certain aliments such as cancers in children; prostrate cancers and the Burkett's tumour, which he said were common and less expensive to treat. He also mentioned other challenging areas to the scheme such as the scope and duration of intensive care given to older patients since the service was very expensive.

The policy on Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) should also be unambiguous and well defined since babies requiring such services might have to be hospitalised for a reasonable period of time, he said. Prof Frimpong Boateng called on the Government to employ more hands to ensure the smooth implementation of the scheme at all levels. "There is the need to create a 'sense of ownership' of the NHIS by health care providers, through a motivation scheme.

For now the NHIS is seen as an additional burden on an already overworked, underpaid and understaffed team," he said. Mr Ampong Darkwah, Scheme Co-ordinator of the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC), said the key role of the KBTH in the implementation of the health insurance scheme was very strategic, as a tertiary health service provider.

He said the Council would soon issue a form that would be used for issuing Identity Cards to ensure uniformity nation-wide. He said the current networking between the various Mutual Health Insurance Schemes was worth copying by other districts to ensure the swift running of the scheme nation-wide, to help to eliminate the cash and carry system. 08 June 06