‘Stop using NHIS cash for workers’

Professor Stephen Adei has urged government to desist from using the statutory 2.5% VAT and 2.5% Social Security deductions from the Ghanaian workers contributions for their health services to pay salaries of public servants and service national debts.

The former rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) said with the current trend, it would be difficult to sustain the NHIS which needs a constant universalised source of funding.

“Certain things must be done to make the NHIS survive irrespective of the government in power… It is high time we told most public servants that they have to earn their keep and will be paid only in proportion to the resources they help raise and leakages they plug,” he said.

Prof Adei said the management of the NHIS has been politised, especially when it comes to its leadership, management and governance that one cannot distinguish between propaganda, policy and genuine programme.

He called for the management of NHIS to be depolitised for a separate body consisting of independent institutions to regulate and manage the national scheme.

“Someone somewhere must tell us what 2.5 % VAT, 2.5% Social Security contribution of workers and NHIS premium paid by members amount to, what it can do and what it cannot do to allow for a non-partisan discussion of the best way to move towards a truly universal coverage,” he added.

Prof Adei was speaking at the induction of 196 newly qualified and registered pharmacists on the theme: ‘Working Together Towards Universal Health Coverage The Role of The Pharmacist’.

The new pharmacists were inducted after successfully passing the Ghana Pharmacy Professional Qualifying examination under the new Health Professions Regulatory Bodies Act 2013 (Act 857).

Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Bampoe, congratulated the new inductees for their hard work and encouraged them to bring the knowledge and experience they have acquired during their training into their practice.

He said as pharmacists, they need to ensure that people can access medicines and pharmaceutical advice.

“You must empower patients by engaging them in dialogue to communicate knowledge which enables them to be more compliant in taking their medicines,” he said.

Chairman of the newly inaugurated Pharmacy Council, Dr Yaw Adu Gyamfi, giving a policy statement, said the new board will start the implementation of its policy to supervise pharmacists.

He said new the policy is aimed at improving supervision and abolish the policy of uncommitted licence or concession that allows pharmacists in regular job to regulate or superintend another pharmacy.