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National Health Insurance subscribers requiring dressing and stitching of minor wounds will no longer pay for the procedure, the Ghana Health Service has announced. The Upper East Regional Hospital which has since September 2 been charging 50 cedis from NHIS card holders for that services has been ordered to cease forthwith. The Hospital had in a memo to the general public announced the charges, claiming the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) “will no longer pay for dressing and minor suturing (stitching of wounds)”. It was unclear what triggered the NHIA’s decision, as it is yet to comment on the matter, which has attracted concerns from the public, particularly subscribers of the government insurance policy.
Following 3news’ publication of the charges Friday, management of the hospital and Ghana Health Services officials went into a meeting at which it resolved that the 50 cedis charge be scrapped, our correspondent Rabiu Tanko reported. The Ghana Health Service also issued a statement later Friday stating it has ordered the Hospital to stop the charging NHIS patients for dressing and stitching of minor wounds. “The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service has instructed the Medical Director to remove the memo and stop such charges immediately,” the statement issued by the PR Unit of the Ghana Health Service read. It said the directive has since “been heeded to”. Meanwhile it has requested for a report on why the hospital director and the management issued such a memo and with whose authorization. The submission of the said report, the GHS, will inform the next line of action to be taken on the matter. By 3news.com]]>