TALKING DRUM: Giving life to NDC’s collapsed NHIS

The Scheme's logo

If you have ever seen how a cocoyam leaf touched by fire looks like, you would understand what I went through on that day, January 3, 2017.

It was Tuesday. After I had reported for 3FM’s Midday News, from the Black Stars Square, on preparations ahead of the inaugural ceremony of the then president-elect, Nana Akufo Addo, I instantly felt as if I had received Manny Pacquiao’s punches. 

“Boss, I am resting a while in the stands at the Black Stars Square. I am very weak,” I sent a WhatsApp message to my editor. 

The driver on duty who was supposed to take me back to the office was Daniel Akoto. I felt so weak that I thought I needed a bit of rest before calling him for pick up. I had a friend, Obiri-Yeboah Maxwell, with me on location so I felt safe.

As I laid down on some four broken chairs in one of the stands at the Black Stars Square, a message came through. It was from Kwakye Afreh Nuamah replying my message which informed him I was not well.

“Wow. Charley go to hospital if you are not feeling well,” it read.

I decided not to go to the hospital until the next day. Why? I had left my membership card of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) home. As a strong advocate of the NHIS insisting family and friends who are nonchalant about it get registered, I will go to the hospital with it. This is regardless the fact that the NHIS has on many occasions disappointed me.

I get paid for basic drugs whenever I attended the hospital.  

So on the day after that Tuesday, I went to the hospital again with my NHIS card hoping our former President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress’ assurance that the NHIS was doing well was, indeed, so. 

My disappointment after I left the Seventh-day Adventist Hospital at New-Gbawe, in the Greater Accra region, on January 4, 2017 was enormous.

Since it was my first time at the SDA Hospital, the NHIS paid for my chit (the piece of paper a patient takes with him/her on attending a particular hospital). The guys have fixed the NHIS; things seem smooth now, I tickled myself.

Then, I was told to laminate the chit costing Gh₵2. The NHIS did not pay for that and I understood my paying for it. Why? Because that had no direct bearing on why I came to the hospital.

However, after I had danced my steps, felt cold within, to go see the doctor in the consulting room, I was told to go for a laboratory test. A test to find out what was troubling me.

The test said I had severe malaria but I would not just be set free to battle the disease. I was told to pay GH₵8 for the laboratory test. The NHIS could not foot this new bill.

My lab receipt

Then when I was handed my folder to go for drugs, the lady at the dispensary gave me a piece of paper. It detailed my cost of drugs amounting to GH₵31. Among these drugs was paracetamol. 

My receipt for drugs

“The NHIS will not cater for even paracetamol?” I asked.

“It doesn’t,” she said.

I was not surprised. At some hospitals also here in the Greater Accra region, I have always paid for my drugs [mainly a cure for malaria]. But, why is it so when I have a national health insurance cover? Is this insurance policy to cater for consultation fee and hospital chit as those were mainly the only things I did not pay for at the hospital?

According to the official website of the NHIS, “Over 95% of disease conditions that afflict us are covered by the NHIS.” 

Our NHIS is supposed to cater for these diseases: “Malaria, acute respiratory tract infection, diarrheal disease, skin disease and ulcers, hypertension, acute eye infection, rheumatism, anemia, intestinal worms disorders, acute ear infection, typhoid fever, dental caries, diabetes mellitus and STIs,” and many more.

That sounds nice, right? However, I can confidently say that the NHIS does not cater for even catarrh in most healthcare providers listed under the scheme. Having been wowed by basically paying for everything at the SDA Hospital at New Gbawe, I made a check on the NHIS’ website to verify if this health center was among the providers.

The SDA Hospital listed among NHIS providers

Indeed, I found it listed among the NHIS providers. When I first raised this issue on Facebook that the NHIS has collapsed, a friend recounted how his mother had benefited from it. He said the scheme covered for them drugs that cost over GH₵1, 500.

He says that perhaps I didn’t go to the right health center that is why I had to pay for mine. The logic here is that, some of these healthcare providers listed under the NHIS get paid for their services rendered. So, if you are fortunate to attend such facilities, since the NHIS does not owe them, you end up benefiting from the scheme.

Rather interesting, should one be making announcements to check which of the healthcare providers the NHIS does not owe so he/she attends? 

We are paying for the services of the NHIS as SSNIT contributors get deducted and so on. So, why is that the scheme is financially bleeding? 

The NDC crippled the NHIS during its tenure in office. The new administration, the Nana Akufo Addo led New Patriotic Party, has promised restoring the dignity of the scheme.

Paracetamol listed among drugs the Scheme covers

Dear President, at your recent State of the Nation Address [SONA 2017], you again reiterated your promise to restore the NHIS. The time is now.

Many of us do not have the financial strength to go for treatment in the Americas and the Europes. All we are asking for is to get the NHIS working, as it did in its initial stages, so we do not pay for common paracetamol. 

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. Views expressed here solely remain his opinion and not that of his organisation.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Why Ghana Police Service no longer surprises me!

Prospective recruits in Wa, Upper West

Whenever I see or hear the name ‘Ghana’ appearing in the name of an institution, it reminds me of a true story of a senior at the then Sunyani Secondary School [SUSEC].

This senior in question we were told was a class prefect. For the purpose of this piece, I will name him Jimmy. Most often when class was in session, after 12pm meant that he had closed from school. Surprised? Don’t be surprised yet.

Jimmy, the class prefect, marked his [class’] register at the dormitory. “Bismark Apati … by now he is not in class,” Jimmy would say of some notable students and marked them absent. For him, being in class in the morning and vanishing from class after 12pm meant you will be marked absent. Some of our seniors who confessed also skipping class, at times, to relax at the dormitory painted a clear picture of Jimmy’s wonders. 

When school had closed and he [Jimmy] asked his classmates to authenticate his ‘present and absent’ list for the day, he was always right.

Jimmy’s prediction is not anything different from the one who predicts how poorly an institution with ‘Ghana’ attached to its name could perform at a particular given time. I must say there is nothing wrong with ‘Ghana’ but there is something wrong in the thinking of some people who work for Ghana-institutions. Here, it is only a handful of such institutions that will not yield to such predictions. The Ghana Police Service, for that matter, has often fallen flat to this test.

Somewhere in 2016 when I got to the Police Training School at Tesano in the Greater Accra region, a number of young men and women had lined up. They were being vetted and the exercise took place across the country. He who passed the officers’ test of measurement of height and documents-check among others would be admitted as recruits into the various police training schools. 

I was there as a reporter and I observed with rapt attention. At the grounds, I spoke with three people who were lobbying to be given some grace period to go bring one or two of their documents which they had left home. Among these documents these people had left home were birth certificates. By the officers’ strict orders insisting the would-be recruits presented every single requested document, I praised the vetting process. The Ghana Police is getting things done right this time. There will be no issues.

Months after the 2016/2017 recruitment exercise, the Ghana Police Service issues a memo instructing that recruits who fell short of proper documentation be dismissed from the training schools. Indeed, this order has led to a number of the police recruits being dismissed. I hear about 3, 000 of them.

Following this, many Ghanaians have expressed worry over the training these dismissed recruits have gained. The fear is that the aggrieved within this dismissed fellows could turn to ‘use’ their acquired skills against the society. This, the Director of Public Affairs of the Ghana Police Service Superintendent Cephas Arthur has told the media there is no need to worry.

“The dismissed trainees have not gotten to the level of handling guns and other weapons which could motivate them to take guns.”

“The dismissed trainees have not gotten to the level of handling guns and other weapons which could motivate them to take guns,” writes 3news.com adding that the training they have received will “be beneficial to the society because they have gone through certain form of police training.”

The police’s further argue that every Ghanaian should have had a sort of military training so, again, there is no big deal about these dismissed recruits. 

I would not want to go into the debate over the possible threats the dismissed recruits could pose to society. Some practicing security officers misbehave and they get dismissed. They also pose a threat to our society. Better put, it all boils down to the police being on their toes to have an eagle eye on those dismissed. 

My worry, however, has to do with the Ghana Police Service's inability to tell who had a complete set of academic qualifications during the recruitment exercise. Also, how come one person presented no certificate but was recruited?

The other time, it was a recruitment scam. Today the story is different but not encouraging either. Our police service has been serving the nation relentlessly. However, they widely open their gate for needless criticisms that go a long way to erode the public’s confidence reposed in them.

When the New Patriotic Party was announced winner of the 2016 election by the Electoral Commission, the police slacked in arresting the hoodlums of the party for attacking innocent persons. Many say that is how it has been most often as when the National Democratic Congress assumed office in 2008, the story was the same.

When you sit in a trotro [public transport] and the police stops your bus all you hear the entire passengers onboard say is ‘give it to him and let’s go.’ Whereas some men and women within the Service are working very hard to redeem the image of their profession, many officers out there make predicting the police an easy task.

When you stand right in front of the Ghana Police Headquarters, in Accra, you can predict motor riders will jump red light and the police will look on and indeed this happens every blessed day. I am surprised what the security cameras mounted at the entrance of their edifice capture.  

Instances of predicting the police, like Jimmy did in mark his class’ register, are countless. You may add your own. What we must earnestly drum home is for the Inspector General of Police, David Asante Apeatu to work with his eyes widely open. He should be bold to bring to book whoever tarnishes the image of the Ghana Police Service.

Mr. IGP, I know you were not at post as of the recruitment exercise but was it the plan that the police will admit people with BECE, NVTI, NABTEX and City and Guilds certificates and be asked to go home later on? 

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect 3FM’s editorial policy.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba

TALKING DRUM: Breman Jamra tragedy- beyond the official rhetoric

Parents and relatives drenched in tears as they see lifeless bodies

When 3FM News Central regional stringer, Perry Baka, hinted a school building in the region had collapsed, I got winced and terrified. 

It was at the Jamra Methodist Primary School in Breman Jamra of the Asikuma Odobeng Brakwa District. Four pupils had been killed on the spot and two others died when rushed to the hospital afters the building collapsed.

It was Tuesday morning January 31, 2017. I had not an iota of courage to download pictures he sent which told the story of the tragic incident. 

‘How would parents of these kids receive this breaking news’? I quizzed myself.

I have read and watched such a story before and I know how sad it feels seeing one’s child, sent to school to become a better person, only to be killed by the very school. In 2008, Joy FM’s Manasseh Azure Awuni, then working as a freelance journalist, filed a horrifying story for Ghana Television (GTV).

The story featured a boy, Kwadwo Njorfuni, who attended the Banda English Arabic Primary School. In November that year, the unfortunate happened when the wall of Kwadwo’s classroom collapsed.

“One pupil, Godwin Ayensu, 11, who sat near the collapsed wall, died on the spot. Another pupil, Sumaila Labil, fell into coma. Ten pupils, including Kwadwo Njorfuni and Sumaila Labil, had to be rushed to safety,’ wrote Manasseh.

The story of the Banda English Arabic Primary School pupils was never nice even afterwards. The injured children had to endure the excruciating pain of having to travel in a rickety car on the deplorable Banda to Krachi stretch of road for treatment. 

Kwadwo Njorfuni, after months of struggling for treatment, lost the battle. He died through no fault of his.

Sumaila Labil, and the other surviving pupils managed to go back to school. They had, however, been abandoned three years after the incident. Sumaila’s case was not anything better. His life was but a disturbing tale to tell. He had been left with mental illness as he was unable to undergo the recommended brain surgery after the incident.

One would have taught that after the Banda English Arabic Primary School’s sad story, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders- who were nonchalant about the pupils’ plight- would have learnt their lessons and worked hard to have at heart the welfare of school pupils across the country. This did not happen.

On February 14, 2014, a school bus carrying 41 pupils, after school, “had a terrible crash injuring many of the school pupils,” reported GNA. It happened at a spot on the Abesim-Tanoso road in the Brong Ahafo region.

Chief Inspector Francis Addo of the Brong Ahafo Motor Traffic and Transport Department told the media the accident could have been caused by excessive overloading. 

He said per numerous complaints received, the MTTD had sent letters to all private schools in the Sunyani municipality to discuss the poor condition of these schools buses. This letter from the MTTD, the Association of Private Schools had not responded.          

 

Two days after this Abesim-Tano accident, another accident happened at the same spot. It involved two school buses. The buses of Preprah-Agyeman Capital Preparatory School [located at Abesim] and that of Emmanuel Preparatory Complex [at Duayaw Nkwanta]. 

An overtaking by the bus of Emmanuel Preparatory Complex caused accident causing parents and relatives of pupils, onboard these buses, to storm Regional Hospital, Sunyani in search of their injured. 

I never heard or read the GES launching investigations into these bus drivers and school authorities’ sheer negligence which led to maiming some pupils. 

In our part of the world, we do what is inspected instead of what is expected. So, I was never surprised when the Ministry of Education and the government] thronged the funeral of the Jamra pupils. 

Coffins were been provided for the families of the deceased pupils to bury their lost. I read somewhere on a news portal the government again footed the cost of the funeral. And this gesture, by government, will probably close the docket of someone’s sheer negligence leading to loss of innocent and precious lives. 

According to media reports, the chief of Breman Jamra had told the Jamra Methodist School to take a critical look at the school’s building since it had cracks. Some other town folks had complained of the cracks too but all to no avail. That Tuesday’s disaster was as a result of collective negligence and a full scale investigation must get some people brought to book.

Living in Africa is like being set before you a lion. The ability to escape it is an individual task.

Living in Africa is like being set before you a lion. The ability to escape it is an individual task. We have been terrorized enough by this ‘lion’ of some of our leaders shirking their responsibilities for far too long. This is the time to get serious. Every single life matters. If no one got punished for supervising the collapse of Kwadwo Njorfuni’s classroom wall, which killed and maimed pupils; that of six lives lost at Breman Jamra must not be brushed under the carpet.   

Nine months of our mothers and sisters bearing the weight of protruded bellies, waking up at night to breastfeed their babies and fathers throwing in cash for diapers and the likes must not j  ust go waste in hands of some irresponsible folks.

The writer is a broadcast journalist with 3FM 92.7. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect 3FM’s editorial policy.

Email: nehusthan4@yahoo.com

Twitter: @Aniwaba