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HEALTH

Obuasi MHIS owes health facilities about GH¢1.4 million

The Obuasi Mutual Health Insurance Scheme (MHIS) at the end of June, this year, owed health facilities a total of GH¢1.4 million.

Date Created : 7/11/2009 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : GNA

Mr John Alexander Ackon, the Municipal Chief Executive, who told the first ordinary meeting of the assembly at Obuasi, noted that the greatest challenge facing the scheme was the inadequate release of subsidies to pay for exempted persons such as pregnant women and those over 70 years.

This challenge has threatened the very existence of the scheme and if we do not act quickly, the scheme in this municipality would collapse,\" he said.

Mr Ackon said the delay in the release of identity cards; slow Information and communication Technology (ICT) platform for processing and search; inadequate office accommodation; and wrong information in clients\' personal data constituted some of the major problems facing the MHIS.

The MCE informed the assembly that a number of beneficiaries of interventions such as the Senior Minister's HIPC Fund, Poverty Alleviation, and the Agriculture Module of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) had failed to pay back a total of GH¢125,802 to the assembly.

On scholarships, he said, the assembly owed over GH¢34,000 in unpaid school fees for two academic years.

I find this state of affairs completely unacceptable having been instrumental in the setting up of this fund while I was a member of this assembly, and given the high premium we put on education. I have, therefore, authorized the payment of the amount to clear all arrears, he said.

Mr Ackon said he had responded to the public's complaint about the delay in signing building permits, explaining, I have signed all building permits left by the last administration, with some dating back to five years and it is my plan to ensure that henceforth no application for a building permit stays on my table for more than two weeks.