Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has disclosed that government owes the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in excess of GHC2 billion.

According to him, the effect of the debt situation on the service providers is worrying. He stated that the average Ghanaian will rather bear the brunt of the decision by the Pharmacists.

“Unfortunately, over the years, government has been owing service providers sometimes five months, six months, nine months and sometimes the whole year. As I speak to you now, government owes service providers in excess of GHC2 billion.”
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh

Reacting to the declaration by the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy (GNCoP) to sell drugs only on cash basis, Mr Akandoh stated that it will not be reasonable if he disagrees with the “Chamber of Pharmacy because these are all the effects of the deteriorating nature of our economy”.

He indicated that given the current situation where NHIS funds are even delayed, he cannot disagree with the decision of the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy.

“When the Minister for Finance, those who are supposed to pay the money, when he was sick and down with Covid, you remember he traveled to one of the most expensive hospitals in the world so he will not bear the brunt of this decision; that is where I get worried.”
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh

Prior to this, the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy (GNCoP) announced that given the current economic challenges the group has decided to provide medicines solely on cash basis.

Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy to provide medicine on cash basis

The President of the Pharmaceutical Importers and Wholesalers Association, William Adum Addo, stated that the impending crisis is capable of affecting lives and the health of the nation.

“All transactions with immediate effect shall be on cash basis until the economy stabilises… The effect of medicine prices will not only result in challenges with medicine availability and accessibility but most importantly the quality of life of Ghanaians, because we all know health is wealth. They cannot afford the exorbitantly high cost of medicine…Very soon a sizable number of industry players may be forced to fold up or lay off staff.”
William Adum Addo

Meanwhile, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has described as worrying, the decision by the Ghana National Chamber of Pharmacy (GNCoP) to sell drugs only on cash basis.

President of the Association, Dr Frank Serebour, noted that this should be a wake-up call for the government before the sustainability of the National Health Insurance Scheme is affected.

“I think that this is a wake-up call to all of us as a country. As Ghana Health Service, as Ministry of Health and as government to look at the rate at which things are depreciating… If we are not careful, this is the beginning of the collapse of the National Health Insurance Scheme and so we need to quickly look at how we can stabilize the economy”.
Dr Frank Serebour