NHIA to settle debt owed Agogo Presbyterian Hospital

Agogo (Ash), May 7, GNA - Arrangements are at an advanced stage for the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to settle a GH¢533,000 debt owed District Health Insurance schemes. To this end the Asante Akim North Mutual Health Insurance Scheme Manager, Mr. Tweneboah Kodua Kwadwo, was scheduled to pick a cheque at the NHIA head office on Wednesday to defray their part of the debt which constitutes 63 per cent of the total amount. Mr. Tweneboah Mensah, General Manager of the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital, told the GNA in an interview that the move would bring some financial relief to the hospital which is being run on overdraft since March.

He denied reports in a section of the media that the hospital had been turning away card bearers of the NHIS. Patients are attended to but are asked to buy prescribed drugs outside the hospital as a measure to check the increasing debt but drugs are dispensed to patients in an emergency. Mr Mensah said the delay in the payment of claims posed a serious challenge to the hospital since the facility was used in training specialists in the health sector. He said as a result of the financial constraint, the allowances of workers as well as salaries of non-mechanised staff had not been paid since March and expressed the hope that the release of funds would bail the hospital out of its financial difficulties.