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Over
50,000 pregnant women registered under free maternal
healthcare
Accra, July 17, Ghanadot/GNA – The National
Health Insurance Scheme, the administrator of the free
maternal healthcare, has since July 1, registered 50,924
pregnant women country-wide.
Out the number the Ashanti Region recorded the highest of
12,164 followed by the Greater Accra Region with 8,211 and
Volta Region having the lowest of a 1,589 pregnant women.
According to Ministry of Health estimates, over one million
pregnancies would be recorded by 2012.
Mr. Ras Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of the Scheme, who
announced this at the meet-the-press series on Thursday,
said the initiative was introduced to reduce maternal
mortality from the current 12 per cent to four per cent by
2015.
He said Ghana currently was rated the 143rd among the league
of nations with high child mortality, hence the need to
intervene to bring quality healthcare delivery to the
people.
He explained that the initiative was an addition to the
Health Insurance programme that would allow pregnant women
to access free antenatal, delivery and postnatal care and
all medical problems arising throughout the year.
It would also cover the care for the baby up to three months
on the mother’s registration.
Mr. Boateng explained that the registration process and
claims re-imbursement were the same as the NHIS and the only
difference was that there would be no payment of premium and
waiting period for accessing health facility.
The initiative is to attain the Goals 4 and 5 of Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) to give free antenatal, deliveries
and postnatal care as well as free medical treatment.
He announced that accredited health facilities would also be
registering pregnant women aside the district offices of the
NHIS and urged them to access the opportunity to have free
maternal care.
Touching on the challenges of the initiative, Mr Boateng
said, there was the need to build capacity through expansion
of health facilities to deal with the sudden increase in
numbers.
He also advocated for fast processing of members’
registration and production of ID cards and also endeavour
to reimburse claims on time.
Mr Boateng therefore urged the public to collaborate with
the scheme to be focus to sustain the programme.
“It is the collective responsibility of all not to allow
wastage and fraud to sustain the programme,” he added.
The British Government has given Ghana 42 million pounds for
the programme to be accessed in four years.
GNA
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