NHIS boss insults doctors

The fifty-fourth annual general conference of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), which was held in Cape Coast over the weekend was nearly marred when the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) boss, Sylvester Mensah, who represented the President, John Dramani Mahama, insulted the doctors as well as the general public that, they were “mentally unbalanced”.

Sources said Mr. Mensah, who was reading a speech on behalf of President Mahama, said it was people who were not mentally balanced that could not see the achievements of the NDC in the area of health, particularly, the NHIS.

Mr. Mensah, who was supposed to outline the vision that his party had for the country regarding the health sector said in his presentation that, the NDC government has done a lot to improve the NHIS as compared to the NPP government and that, people who did not recognize the improvements in the scheme were mentally unbalanced.

The NHIA boss repeated the statement during his presentation and during question time. This annoyed the doctors, as some walked out of the conference.

According to sources, GMA invited all political parties to the conference to present their policies and programmes regarding the health sector when given the nod in the upcoming elections.

The source added that three political parties namely, National Democratic Congress (NDC), New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) of Kwesi Nduom were represented.

Information gathered has it that, Mr. Mensah, during his presentation said that the NPP representative, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng would even vote for the NDC; a statement which generated another controversy since the Prof. claimed he had been described as mentally unbalanced and wondered how people of no sound mind could vote for the NDC.

In an interview, some of the aggrieved doctors lambasted Mr. Mensah for the bad comments he made.

According them, this was not the first time the NHIS boss had insulted them and warned the President to advise him since they could no longer contain any more insults from him.

According to them, the fact that they held different opinions did not mean the scheme manager had to insult them.

They have therefore called on the government to answer whether it was written in the President’s address which was read on his behalf that those who did not recognize the improvements in the scheme were mentally unbalanced.