The rate at which the government is being sued for medical malpractice committed by healthcare professionals across the nation has been lamented by the Minister for Health, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu.
He claims that "for the past four weeks, the ministry has received at least one letter from the Attorney General's office regarding a suit arising from issues with the delivery of health care."
Therefore, he advised medical professionals to use prudence when dispensing treatment.
He made a plea to the head of these institutions to consider the interests of the lower class by adopting the health insurance card while speaking at the first Senior Managers of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) conference on Tuesday, 18 April 2023, in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region.
In spite of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) being in place, he also bemoaned the return of the "Cash and Carry" system in the majority of healthcare facilities nationwide.
He stated that practically all healthcare facilities do not take health insurance cards and further stated that he has heard many complaints from subscribers about the care they receive at some of these facilities.
Even though the Cesarean Section (CS) is covered by the plan, some subscribers pay more than GHC 1,000 to have the procedure performed at select hospitals, said to Mr. Manu.
He characterized it as "sad" because the poor people in society, not the middle class, were responsible for the introduction of the system.
At the same time, he acknowledged that the plan had been delaying payments, but he also said that every effort was being made to get some money delivered on time for the facilities' operation.
Meanwhile, he offered an unsettling question: "Why should we extort from the poor people?"
In majority of the nation's healthcare facilities, Mr. Agyeman-Manu also raised concerns about the falsification of the medication list.
He stated that oxytocin, which is used to promote childbirth, is the most frequently encountered phony medicine in most hospitals.
According to Mr. Manu, his organization has given the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) authorization to publicly criticize such health facilities across the nation.