Make family planning services part of NHIS – Health Director
Dr. Alexis Nang-Beifubah, Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, has appealed to the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to consider the inclusion of family planning services in the policy implementation.
He said efforts by health workers to reduce maternal deaths, adolescent pregnancies, and unsafe abortions among young girls were still not receiving the desire results and attributed the high maternal deaths rate to the non-inclusion of family planning in the coverage of the NHIS.
Dr. Nang-Beifubah was speaking at a day’s stakeholders’ forum for actors in the National Health Insurance Scheme in the Region at the weekend to share experiences and challenges and strategise to improve performance.
He said despite some interventions initiated by governments to help reduce maternal deaths, high charges slapped on young girls when they sought medical services at private medical facilities to terminate pregnancies, had made many of them to resort to unorthodox ways resulting in their deaths.
“Young girls would have better options as to what to do with their sexual life if family planning services were catered for by the NHIS and that would have helped reduce the incidence of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion as well as high risk of maternal deaths,” Dr. Nang-Beifubah explained.
He said people in the Region had been complaining that they were not receiving the desire services rendered to them at the health facilities as well as NHIS providers and called for concerted efforts to improve performance.
Dr. Nang-Beifubah said what some of the people said about services rendered them were right because the Wa Regional Hospital, which was supposed to have been manned by 25 medical doctors had only four doctors.
The lack of adequate doctors as well as critical health personnel to man health facilities had contributed to the challenges clients face at facilities.
The Regional Health Director appealed to the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council, non-governmental organisations and international community for their support to help improve doctors/patient ratio in the region.
Source: GNA