NHIS Collapses Prestea Hospital

The Prestea Government Hospital is in dire financial crisis and could suffer an imminent shut down if measures are not put in place to reverse the situation. Information available to The Chronicle indicates that about 85% of patients who patronize the hospital are National Health Insurance (NHIS) card bearers, but since March this year, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has not reimbursed the hospital with the money they have spent on these patients. As a result of this development, doctors at the facility now prescribe drugs for the NHIS card bearers and asked them to go and purchase outside. The hospital has adopted the measures because institutions that supply them with the drugs have ceased doing so because of the huge debt owed them by the hospital. The Administrator of the hospital, Mr. Mr. Felix Osei Kesse, who confirmed the story in a telephone interview, attributed the financial woes of the hospital to the failure of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to clear the March to September claims the hospital had submitted. According to him, the NHIA owed the hospital GHc 752,826.36, which is making it virtually impossible to operate the facility. According to him, basic things such as infusions, drugs and gloves which the Nurses use in their daily duties are unavailable because they cannot afford to purchase them. Kesse warned that should suppliers of the hospital totally withdraw their services, as they are threatening because of the huge debt that would be the end of the facility. Prestea is one of the Districts in the Western Region that has recorded high cholera cases.