For 16 years now, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Office in the Upper Denkyira West District has been manned by two staff; one Accounts Officer and a Data Entry Officer.
Unfortunately, in the last two months, the office has become non-operational.
The Data Entry Officer was recently transferred to Cape Coast leaving just Joshua Andoh, the Accounts Officer.
Mr. Andoh made this known in an appeal to the Chief and Elders of New Obuasi, formerly known as Denkyira Obuasi, during a Beneficiary Community Dialogue on Social Protection (SP), last Tuesday, July 2, 2024.
The dialogue was an educational and interactive durbar for the people and leaders of New (Denkyira) Obuasi, organised by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP) in partnership with the Civil Society Platform for Social Protection Ghana (CSPSP-GH) and the Journalists in Social Protection (JISOP) Ghana with funding support from UNICEF Ghana.
Getting to the end of his presentation on the NHIS as a key SP programme at the durbar, Mr. Andoh’s voice suddenly fell as he passionately appealed to the Chief and his elders to work with the District Assembly to staff the NHIS Office.
“There used to be two of us managing the facility. But as I speak with you, one has been transferred, leaving me alone. As a result, this time, if you come to the office, we are not working. We are not working at all. We’ve stopped working,” he stressed.
“Now that we have been separated from Dunkwa [Upper Denkyira East Municipal], I will plead with you [The Chief and Elders] to work with the Assembly to help the NHIS Office here to also be independent of the Dunkwa Office. This way, we can create employment for our brothers and sisters in the district who are jobless so that they too can fend for the themselves,” he passionately added.
According to him, new NHIS registrations and renewals of old memberships have since been ceased at the office.
Impact on LEAP Beneficiaries
In line expanding social protection services in the country, the NHIA working with the Social Welfare Department now registers and renews membership for Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) beneficiaries for free
But that too cannot be done now because the NHIS Office is not operational
Mustapha Ibrahim, Social Welfare Director for the Upper Denkyira West District, says he has about 70 LEAP Beneficiaries who may need renewals of their NHIS Cards in the coming week.
“Currently, we have about 70 LEAP beneficiaries. For us, we did the NHIS cards for them already so I think most of them will need renewals. But the NHIS has not been working so they cannot help us. At first, they used to be three or two, but now only one gentleman is there and so the place is closed down,” he said in exasperation.
Unfortunately, these LEAP Beneficiaries cannot renew using the NHIA’s digital platform because most of them do not have access to smartphones and cannot pay for the service, which is why they are supposed to get it for free.
Some LEAP Benefiaries at the Community DialogueMore Problems Than One
Upper Denkyira West District is one the Central Region’s 22 administrative districts, formed out of the former Upper Denkyira District in 2008.
Municipal NHIS Manager for Upper Denkyira East, Mr. Charles Akomde, who doubles as the Manager for Upper Denkyira West said though the two were separated administratively, the West has never had the full complement staff or office space.
“We were hoping that once they became an independent district, they’ll own their own office, employ full staff and operate fully. But since that has not been done, we cannot leave them on their own,” he explained in an exclusive interview.
According to Mr. Akomde, his outfit now operates the Upper Denkyira West District NHIS Office as a satellite especially in instances of mass registrations, complaints lodging and administrative supervision.
In an interview on the sidelines of the community dialogue, Mr. Andoh averred that there is more to their logistics and staffing needs than personnel for mass registrations and outreaches.
He said that even before his former colleague left, the office had many other challenges.
“For instance, we were not having even a cleaner. We don’t have security men. And even, there are many offices, like PRO, Data Entry, MIS Officer, which should have been occupied by personnel but due to inadequate staff, we were covering all those areas,” Mr. Andoh stated.
These thwarted their efforts and limited their efficiency, more so in performing their mandate.
Not Really Independent
The Local Government Act 462 of 1993 establishes 16 departments of Metropolitan Assemblies, 13 departments of Municipal Assemblies and 11 departments of District Assembly, including health.
This means all issues of health, including NHIS, in every district would be handled by the health department of the district.
Unfortunately, though the Upper Denkyira West is independent and has its own health department, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) still works with the pre-2008 arrangement, describing Upper Denkyira as a district with no distinction between the East (which is now a municipal) and the West.
This is captured on the Authority’s website.
Mr. Akomde insists that all efforts to get the district NHIS office to be set up to operate fully has yet to yield any positive results.
“Since that district became [independent] its own operational status, we pushed through the NHIA and the assembly to ensure that they have their own office. But that has not been done yet. And I have also met with the Assembly to push for probably having their own office with full complement of staff,” said Mr. Akomde.
On his part, despite the mounting challenges, Joseph refuses to quit.
In his own words, “I will go [to work] because that is where I get my money to feed by parents, and my wife. So, with this, I will do it as I was doing it.”
Abiwu Theodore Korku Mawutor | Denkyira Obuasi
