Mr Prosper Asandem, the Bolgatanga Municipal Administrator of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has observed that preventive medicine is key to the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

He therefore proposed to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to include experts on preventive medicine in the health committee that advices the NHIA.

The Municipal Health Administrator said this during a stakeholders meeting organized by the NHIS in Bolgatanga during which the performance of the Scheme was reviewed.

“Dieticians, nutritionists, health promotion experts, physiotherapists, and environmental health workers can help reduce the financial pressure on NHIS. The huge hospital attendance and health faculties to access health care can be reduced to the barest minimum as a measure to ease the burden on the NHIS if the preventive medicine approach is adopted”, he said.

He emphasized that nutrition was the foundation of good health and explained that the human biochemistry was made up of certain key ingredients (nutrients) supplied by the mother during pregnancy.

He stated that the shortage or excess of those nutrients could result in health deficits capable of affecting the health status and potentials of a person throughout life.

He said many people were in hospitals battling with sicknesses that could be managed using specific dietary prescriptions, yet dieticians and nutritionists were not enough in the health institutions especially in the Bolgatanga Municipality.

“Consequently Government, NGO’s, private sector, donor agencies, district assemblies, and international health partners should join forces to champion the operations of preventive medicine rather than emphasizing on curative care alone”, he stated.

He called on the NHIA to collaborate with the Ministry of Health and the GHS to train more dieticians, nutritionists, health promotion experts, physiotherapists, and environmental health workers and to post them to the field.

Mr Asandem attributed the cause of many preventive diseases such as cholera and typhoid to poor hygiene and suggested the need to bring back the Sanitary Inspectors concept to help curb the menace.

He stressed the need for prudent financial management and good collaboration between the provider and the NHIS.