Upper East NHIA receives logistical boost
The Upper East Regional Office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has received logistical support from the Central Government to facilitate smooth execution of work in the region.
Mr Kasim Abudulai, Upper East Regional Operations Manager at the NHIA who made this known to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Bolgatanga said the office procured about 20 new printers and distributed to the schemes in the districts to augment the existing.
These he said would enable the schemes renew and produce insurance cards for their clients to access health care.
Mr Abudulai said each of the nine district insurance schemes in the region, received two printers except the Bolgatanga and the Bawku Mutual schemes, which had a total of three printers each and indicated that the distribution of the equipment was in response to public outcry for their inability to renew their NHIS cards due to the ineffectiveness of the old printers.
He said it was expected that the schemes would immediately set the printers up to start producing the cards for clients who wish to renew and potential ones who want to subscribe to the services of the schemes, adding that, the additional printers would ensure efficiency at the various schemes in the region.
Mr Abudulai explained that the new printers with multi-coloured ribbons could renew about 150 NHIS cards in a day, while the old printers with single coloured ribbons could renew close to 3000 NHIS cards in a day.
He added that due to insufficient NHIS cards in the system, the new printers have been assigned to print the new cards, while the old printers would be for renewed cards.
The Operations Manager gave the assurance that all other printers that were faulty would be re-assembled to serve as backups to the new ones to ensure uninterrupted card renewal services to clients at the various schemes.
He called on the National Health insurance clients to exercise restraint and said the Scheme was committed to resolving some of the issues to ensure that they delivered on promise.
Source: GNA