Bolgatanga, May 17, GNA - Mrs. Agnes Chigabatia, Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, has paid 800 Ghana cedis to cover the medical bills of five young mothers detained at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital for their inability to settle their bills after they were discharged. The mothers, who were all delivered of boys through Caesarean Section.

Presenting the money to the Hospital Matron, Madam Rose Alobasi, Mrs. Chigabatia said in her own small way, she was paving the way for the National programme that would offer free medical treatment to pregnant women.

"I wish to thank the President for this wonderful gift given to women, many of who suffer the family poverty most because of their reproductive cycle and traditional responsibilities", she said.

She visited the Maternity Ward as part of activities to mark International Day for the Family and saw the women looking sad because they had been confined to the hospital for the past three weeks. Madam Alobasi thanked the Deputy Minister for her kindness and said detaining the women was not the best option but the hospital needed the money and the families of the women had promised to pay only they never turned up after the first visit. She said most of the time, the hospital permitted patients who could not pay their bills immediately to go home and pay later but that had proved unreliable. Asked where their husbands were, some of the women shed tears, saying they had not seen them since the first time they visited.