Absorb lepers under NHIS

Page 30
Feb 2, 2008


THE President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Association, Agya Kweku Appiah, has urged the National Health Insurance Council (NHIC) to absorb lepers as part of the vulnerable group under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
That, he said, was to ensure that they could access better medical care.
Agya Appiah, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Aduro Ye Bitters, made the call when he presented GH¢ 3,000 to the Weija Leprosarium in Accra.
He appealed to the government to ensure that the GH¢ 0.60 cedis allowance given to cured lepers was paid promptly and reviewed to reflect the current economic demands.
“I also plead with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other stakeholders to increase their societal education in order to integrate all cured lepers into the society and assist them to acquire vocations in order to give them economically independent”, he said.
Agya Appiah said the number of new cases globally had fallen by more than 40,019, and that during the past five years, new cases had decreased by 20 per cent.
“Unfortunately in Ghana, even though the MOH and the GHS have continued to adopt the multidrug therapy to reduce the prevalence, diagnosis and access to information is limited to the newly infected, thereby posing a threat to its cure and expected reduction”, he said.
The leader of the inmates, Madam Gladys Adobea, who thanked Agya Appiah for the donation, appealed to the government to honour its promise of increasing the allowance for cured lepers.