Prof. Titus Kofi Beyuo, General Secretary for the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has called on the various political parties to come out with their policies for health workers ahead of the December 2024 elections.
His call comes on the back of challenges the workers face when they encounter a health issues. He says the status quo does not provide any clear policy to protect health workers whose conditions are not covered by the National Health Insurance.
His comment comes on the back of a health practitioner whose two breasts have to be cut as a result of cancer, also losing her ovaries and uterus in the process.
Her brother, speaking with Captain Smart on Onua TV’s morning show, Maakye, Monday, September 02, 2024, narrated the ordeal she had to go through as a health worker to pay her medical bills, before passing away early this year.
Commenting on the development, Prof. Beyuo likened the situation of health workers to “a person who is thirsty and sits by a stream but cannot drink some.”
Prof. Titus-Beyuo is General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association
He also shared on the show, his experience where his wife who is a health worker had to pay for delivering her baby at the very facility she works.
“I have been a victim because my wife gave birth and even though she also worked at the same hospital she delivered, she was made to pay,” he disclosed.
He revealed however, that some staff at certain health facilities have instituted some welfare for themselves to cater for part of the costs of their medical bills that are not covered on the national health insurance.
“They now have some staff healthcare who take part of the bills that are not covered on the insurance. So it is not uncommon. It is something that usually happen. There are many health sectors where workers such as drivers and others do not have any cover apart from the insurance,” he stated.
He disclosed that although the flag bearer of the NDC, John Dramani Mahama, has mentioned some risk exposure insurance for health workers, it will be prudent for all the presidential aspirants to come out with what they have for those who work at the sector.
He says the spelling out of those policies is what would serve as a motivation for those working at the health sector.
Prof. Beyuo wants government to at least bear a portion of the cost for workers whose health needs are not catered for in the health insurance and also pay for the expenses of health professionals whose treatment demands traveling outside the country.
Source:onuaonline.com