Free medical care — A move to save our souls.(Page 7)

Article: Lucy Adoma Yeboah

A YOUNG lady I have adopted since she lost her mother in 2004, found herself pregnant. When she called to inform me that she had had the baby through caesarian operation, my heart lost a beat knowing very well that it will involve hundreds of Ghana cedis. Before I could find my voice to ask how much it will cost her, I heard her say; “Mama I was supposed to pay GH¢300 but because I had registered under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), I paid nothing”. I heaved a sigh of relief.
For about three years now, my heart has always been at rest knowing that when the need arises, my elderly parents in the Brong Ahafo Region, if for nothing at all, would get prompt medical care without waiting to receive money from any of my siblings or I because they are covered by the NHIS.
Without being biased towards any political party, I say that the NHIS is one of the best things that has ever happened to this country. I hope that statement would be accepted by all political parties because, so far, all of them have embraced it although each talks of a different way of implementing it if given the opportunity.
Some of us in the big towns and cities who have access to all manner of health care facilities either because we are enjoying free medical care from our employers or are financially sound, might not realise the importance of NHIS, but with people like that poor diabetic who previously had to sell her clothes and jewellery to enable her purchase drugs regularly, the scheme is God sent.
All over the world, people are able to produce when they enjoy prompt medical attention. With measures in place for people to benefit, citizens are always at their best when it comes to production, after all they would be saved from the pains of ill health which usually reduces productivity and national development.
Talking about pain, personal experiences coupled with medical research have pointed out the kind of pain women go through during childbirth. Anybody who has ever gone through labour would tell you that but for the fact that one easily forgets the pain after being safely delivered of the baby, only few women would have the courage to go through it for the second time.
For that and other reasons which border on a matter of do or die, many would have wished that the rest of society would offer all the necessary support to expectant mothers for safe delivery and healthy babies.
That was the reason why there was jubilation among women throughout the country when the news came out that the British government had decided to provide 42.5 million pounds to strengthen the implementation of the government's programme to provide free medical care for pregnant women. The programme is expected to begin, July this year.
Few days after the announcement from the presidency, women’s groups from the 10 regions of the country and led by Hajia Alima Mahama, the Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, defied mid-day rains to throng the Castle to express their deep appreciation to the President and the government “for rolling out free medical care for pregnant women”.
Holding miniature national flags, the women, who sang songs and danced, also expressed their appreciation to the government for the many interventions it had initiated so far to improve their livelihood.
Before that, Mr Andrew Awuni, the Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman, had announced to journalists after a journey from Britain with President J. A Kufuor that the decision of the British government to support Ghana's health sector was the outcome of bilateral talks held in London between the President and the British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown.
Mr Awuni said the free medical care for pregnant women represented part of the government’s effort to reduce maternal mortality and achieve targets set under by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The eight MDGs, which include eradication of extreme poverty and hunger, reduction in child mortality and improvement of maternal health, form a blueprint agreed to by all the world’s countries and the world’s leading development institutions at the United Nations in New York in 2000.
Mr Awuni explained that it would cost the Ghana government an average of $6 million annually for the implementation of the free medical care policy.
He said the Ghana government had been working on the free medical care for pregnant women for sometime now but the implementation of the policy was constrained by lack of adequate funds.
On the fears that the free medical care might not be sustainable because it was donor driven, Mr Awuni said the government would be able to generate internal resources to sustain the implementation of the policy.
To see to its successful implementation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has formed a task team to that effect. The team has 19 members from various ministries, departments and agencies whose activities are related to health.
At the inauguration of the team in Accra on June 10, 2008, the Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd) said, ensuring that women delivered in a safe environment and by competent health professionals was a human rights issue.
“It is also a developmental issue since that is the only way we can ensure that we have healthy and productive Ghanaian population,” he said.
So the question is : how do we ensure that women deliver in a safe environment and by competent health professionals when they could not access health facilities? What happens after the initial fund from Britain gets exhausted?
It is , therefore, a welcome news that the task team, which comprised 19 members from various Ministries and Development Agencies, is to mobilise additional resources to sustain the policy of free maternity care in the country.
They would also identify areas for technical support locally to strengthen the implementation of actions for the reduction of maternal deaths in Ghana and report their findings to the Ministry of Health every six months.
The minister observed that Ghana’s high maternal mortality could be reduced if a greater proportion of pregnant women were helped through child birth by trained midwives adding that the current supervised delivery coverage of 35 per cent was unacceptably low.
It was heart-warming to learn that as part of its responsibility, the team would ensure that women had access to emergency obstetric care, as well as quality care when they visited health facilities.
The free medical care policy, according to the minister, would be implemented through the NHIS at the various health facilities throughout the country.
To make the policy more beneficial to pregnant women, the minister explained that, “ We will exempt pregnant women from paying NHIS premiums. We will also waive the up to six month mandatory waiting period under the NHIS to enable pregnant women enjoy free services immediately they are registered”.
When the women visited the President at the Castle to say “ayekoo” to him, he assured them that the policy would become a permanent feature in the country’s health delivery system. What a relief!
He, however, advised that notwithstanding that intervention, couples should take family planning more seriously to ensure that the programme was not overburdened. An advice which women should take because it is a fact that free maternal care alone could not solve all the problems associated with child bearing. Issues of food, clothing, shelter and education are there to be also considered.
It has become important at this time in the life of the nation to fight our current rate of maternal mortality. Statistics show that 540 women out of every 100,000 are likely to die during childbirth.
Under the MDGs, countries are expected to reduce their maternal mortality rates by three quarters. Ghana has succeeded in reducing poverty by half but unfortunately lags behind when achieving the maternal mortality target. We cannot continue to accept death through pregnancy and child birth which are natural phenomena and although painful, should be safe .
During the meeting with the women, President Kufuor said the mortality rate was too high and the government was, therefore, exploring different avenues to roll out a programme to address the problem.
He said he previously held discussions with the British Prime Minister, Mr Gordon Brown, about the problem during a conference on the MDGs and, fortunately, the British Premier had expressed his readiness to help Ghana to fight against maternal mortality by pledging to donate £42.5 million to support the health sector.
The amount, the President said, was only seed money and expressed the hope that the discovery of oil in commercial quantities would strengthen the country’s economy to provide additional resources to sustain the policy.
On his part, Major Quashigah, told the women that the ministry, the NHIS and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) were working together to ensure the implementation of the policy and agreed with a proposal from the task team that every pregnant woman who reported at a public hospital would be registered with the NHIS to enable her immediately benefit from the free medical care.
All things being equal, somewhere in July this year, any pregnant woman in Ghana who visits any public health care facility throughout the country, will be registered to receive free medical care until she gives birth. What good news!
What is left now is how women, especially those in the rural communities, would hear of this policy and use this opportunity. It is, therefore, important for those of us who have heard about this good news to inform all and sundry so that together, we can save our expectant mothers together with their babies from preventable deaths.