Kwaku Agyemang Manu
The Chamber of Pharmacy, Ghana (CPG) has called on government to release the remaining funds for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to pay its debts.
According to the chamber, it will be forced to halt supply of medicines on credit to health service providers under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) if the government does not release more funds to pay the providers.
Government recently released part of the arrears that the scheme currently owes its service providers with the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, pledging to ensure frequent releases of funds to the scheme but the CPG said it is not adequate.
Anthony Ameka, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CPG, in an interview with a local newspaper said, “Government should make funds available immediately for, at least, six months to the service providers so that they can also pay us or else we will demand cash payments from them.’’
Mr Ameka said medicines account for 54 percent of the operational cost of the healthcare providers, indicating that the current arrangement of selling products on credit was crippling pharmaceutical companies in the country.
“Because of the huge debt, the NHIS is killing the pharmaceutical sector in the country. We also buy from our suppliers on credit who normally give us 45 days to sell and release the money to them. Here is the situation the scheme owes us almost one year as of now,” Mr Ameka explained.