Front view of the Zebilla Hospital
A 35-year-old woman in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region, has lost her one-and-a-half-month-old daughter because she could not raise GH¢10.00 to pay for the fee of a folder for her child to be treated.
She has called on the management of the National Health Insurance Scheme to investigate why she was asked to pay GH¢10.00 for a folder before her daughter could receive medical care at the Zebilla Government Hospital.
She wants the officer in-charge of the Clients’ Unit of the National Health Insurance Scheme at the hospital to be punished for insisting on the money, even when he saw that the baby’s life was in danger and could die if not treated immediately.
According to the woman, Azumah Atiah, her daughter was not well and had to rush her to the Zebilla Government Hospital, and upon reaching the Out Patients Department (OPD) for a folder, she was asked to pay HG¢10.00 for the folder.
Ms Azumah Atiah said that her plea with the officer at the Clients’ Unit to accept GH¢5.00 and take her sick daughter through the process of treatment, proved futile.
“The officer insisted that, I get all the GH¢10.00 before I could be given the folder for my daughter to receive treatment. The only money I had on me was GH¢5.00 but the officer was not ready for that. I had to rush to the night market to see if I would meet some of the people from my village who had come for the Monday market, to help me,” she narrated.
When she returned to the hospital, after an unsuccessful search, Ms Azumah Atiah discovered that her daughter was in a critical condition and as she rushed to the Clients’ Unit to continue pleading, a ‘Good Samaritan’ gave her GH¢5.00 to enable her get the folder.
“My brother, when I paid the money and had the folder, my daughter died shortly after. I wasted time on processing documents and now my daughter is dead,” she lamented.
Layo Nduy Nguy, assembly member for Aramkoliga, a suburb of Zebilla, was not happy with the conduct of the officer at the Clients’ Unit of the NHIS of the hospital and wanted the scheme’s management to investigate the matter.
An officer of the NHIS in Bolgatanga told DAILY GUIDE that if the woman had registered with the scheme, then she needed not pay any GH¢10.00 for a folder.
FROM Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Zebilla