President John Evans Atta Mills on Thursday called for an urgent need for dialogue and consensus building on the financing of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to ensure its sustainability.

Currently, measures are being implemented for cost containment through improved provider payment systems, he said.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament, President Mills noted that for better customer orientation the scheme had planned to start a call centre to make it more user-friendly.

He said the NHIS is growing with utilisation rising from about 600,000 in 2005 to more than 17.5 million as at December 2011.

Touching on health infrastructure, President Mills said some new health facilities had been completed within the last three years and would soon be put to use, and cited the Winneba Municipal Hospital as an example.

“Significant progress has been made on the Tamale Teaching Hospital rehabilitation project,” he added.

President Mills noted that plans to improve access to quality health care are on course.

“Government is also strengthening the capacity of existing regional, district hospitals, and polyclinics".

He explained that five polyclinics would be completed by the end of June in Wechiau, Babille, Ko, Lambussie and Hain, in the Upper West Region.

President Mills expressed concern about the deplorable state of Korle-bu Teaching Hospital and said government’s intervention had led to the procurement of life support equipment and new oxygen plants, to be installed soon.

Under the National Medical Equipment Replacement Project, government is providing life support equipment, and medical imaging in selected district hospitals nationwide as well as re-equipping radiology departments in the teaching and regional hospitals with state of the art Magnetic Resonance Imagers, and CT scanners, he said.

“As a matter of fact, state-of-the-art Magnetic Resonance Imaging machines are currently being installed at the Komfo Anokye and Tamale Teaching Hospitals,” President Mills indicated.

He noted that basic obstetric equipment had been supplied and installed in selected district hospitals and health centres across the country as part of efforts at reducing maternal mortality.

The National Ambulance Service, he said, would take delivery of 160 ambulances this year to augment the existing fleet.

President Mills said with the help of the Cuba, 250 Ghanaian students would benefit from medical training in that country. 200 of them would study for their first degrees in medicine while 50 them would benefit from specialist training.

Government had also succeeded in reaching an agreement with Cuba to increase the yearly medical personnel quota to Ghana from 200 to 300.

On Guinea Worm, President Mills said the last Guinea Worm case was reported in May 2010 at Diare in the Northern Region.

“We will intensify our disease surveillance to make sure that Guinea Worm is not re-introduced into Ghana and also prepare Ghana for certification by the World Health Organisation as a country free of Guinea Worm.”