The Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has described as “surprising”, threats by the Chamber of Pharmacy Ghana to halt crediting medicine supply to health providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme.
Government reportedly settled part of the GHC 1.2 million arrears that the scheme currently owes providers but the Chamber is insisting the amount is not enough.
Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Health Minister, Mr. Kwaku Agyemang-Manu wondered why the Chamber was unwilling to negotiate on the terms of payment when it had held earlier consultations with government on the payment terms..
“I am a bit surprised because last two or three weeks when we were in Kumasi during the health summit, I think I came out clearly that we were going to start making some payments and since we came, we did the March payment.
“I explained to them that …we making arrangements with the Finance Ministry and it may be likely that we will do a little bit significant payment and that will cover about two or three months arrears for them. …And then going forward we were still anticipating some arrangement to bring us more money so by the close of the year we may have reduced this indebtedness to some level that is appreciable or acceptable so I am a bit surprised about what is being reported,” the Minister explained.
The Minister indicated that the situation was even worse when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was in power, saying “even as far back as last year when we had not even come to power yet, some of the pharmacists had withdrawn them.”
Mr. Agyemang –Manu said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration has been forced to deal with the situation because the outgoing government failed to leave enough funds to settle these arrears.
“I appreciate their concerns but the bottom line is that if you inherit a system that did not leave money sitting down to do these payments you have to find a way to get some of these payments done.”
He however asked them to exercise patience as the Ministry works to resolve the issue.
The Chamber of Pharmacy is not the only institution that has expressed frustration over outstanding arrears.
The Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) has also complained about the situation, saying government has so far reimbursed only one of the 12 months the NHIS owes its member institutions.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
