Network connectivity is affecting our service - NHIS Director laments

Internet connectivity is a major challenge in some parts of Ghana which is affecting many businesses both in private organizations and public organizations in the country.

Unlike the North East Region, some residents still make calls on top of trees with families and loved ones due to the fluctuating nature of the network in the region.

In this regard, subscribers of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) always spend several hours at the NHIS office at the regional level and the District offices of the scheme to get their cards registered due to the poor connectivity of the network.

Some of the registrants who travel a far distance to the office to get registered often turn up to sleep there till the next day.

In an interview with GhanaWeb, the North East Regional NHIS Director, Mr. George Apetigah complained that the network connectivity has affected their performance in the year 2021 after their annual review.

"We work with network connectivity, so anytime the network is down, we are not able to sell our business and that has been one of the challenges affecting our service", he lamented.

He also added that the service providers at the various facilities in the Region are extorting the clients anytime they visit the health centers to seek healthcare.

"Our work is more or less a service organization and so we serve our members, and sometimes there are complains that some of them also go to the facilities and then due to one or two things they are asked to top up for payments. This has been an old issue, we have been battling with it and it is still with us. That is one of the challenges we are always confronted with", he complained.

The North East Region has Districts with four NHIS offices. The Mamprugu Moaduri District and the Yunyoo-Nansuan District still do not have NHIS offices to get the residents registered.

The Regional Director said plans are underway at the national level to get these two Districts NHIS offices.