Wa, Feb. 2, GNA - Regional and District Advocacy Committees monitoring the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme have alleged that members of the schemes were being given inferior drugs at the hospitals.

They also expressed concern that cardholders of the schemes were not given enough attention as they are made to wait for long hours at hospitals before a doctor attended to them.

These allegations were made at a National Health Insurance appraisal forum held at Wa and organized by the Wa Municipal Health Insurance Advocacy Committee under the auspices of the Centre for Development of People (CEDEP), an NGO.

Mr Bright Asare Boadi, Programme Manager of CEDEP, said his organization established the advocacy Committees throughout the country to ensure that all clients of the various schemes were treated fairly. He said the Advocacy Committees also found that most often chemical sellers sometimes deceived cardholders to buy drugs with the reason that the drugs prescribed for them were not covered by the NHIS. Mr Nasir Ahmed Aidoo, Management Information Systems Officer of the Wa Municipal Health Insurance Scheme, said 55,310 people representing 43.3 per cent of the population of the municipality joined the scheme as at December 31 last year.