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National health insurance subscribers who sought medical care at private clinics in Kumasi Wednesday were denied attention, as the facilities withdrew services under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). That followed a decision by the Ashanti Regional branch of the Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners (SPMDP) to suspend their services in protest against the implementation of the NHIS capitation pilot exercise. Patients were made to pay the full cost of medical care and those who could not afford were turned away. The Daily Graphic visited some of the private health facilities, such as the City Hospital, the Atasemanso Hospital, the St Edward Hospital and the Magazine Clinic, and the picture was very much the same everywhere. Some of the patients who did not have money had to leave to seek alternative services at the public health facilities. Those who spoke to the Daily Graphic said they were not aware that private clinics had suspended operating the NHIS. Members of the SPMDP had said they would only return to the scheme when the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) withdrew the capitation. The suspension of the services of private hospitals under the NHIS is expected to put much pressure on public health facilities in the region, especially in Kumasi, which has the biggest concentration of private facilities. At the St Edward Clinic, the Chief Executive, Dr Edward Prempeh, said, �I am all for the suspension.� Dr Prempeh, a former Ashanti Regional President of the SPMDP, added, �We will not allow anyone to take us for granted.� Confirming the withdrawal, the Ashanti Regional President of the society, Dr Emmanuel Harry Tawiah, said the members of the society would not allow the NHIA to foist the capitation on them. He stressed that from the way the NHIA was going about the capitation, it was clear that it wanted to collapse health care in the Ashanti Region and questioned the rush to implement the capitation when it was clear that the preparatory work was not consultative enough. He revealed that a policy document prepared by the NHIA on the capitation indicated that the authority�s major objective for the introduction of capitation was to cut down cost. The document said the NHIA spent about GH�42 million in the Ashanti Region in 2010 and it intended reducing the cost by 20 per cent through capitation. Dr Tawiah emphasised that health care was expensive and any attempt to use any �questionable� means to cut down cost could cost the lives of many people. He accused officials of the NHIA of refusing to take any of the suggestions the association had proposed to make the capitation workable. When contacted, the Ashanti Regional Manager of the NHIA, Mr Emmanuel Baah-Danquah, said officially the authority was not aware of any action by the doctors. According to him, the top management of the NHIA, led by the Chief Executive, Mr Sylvester Mensah, had met with the doctors last week, during which it accepted many of the concessions the doctors put forward. The only issue that was not met was the upward adjustment in tariffs, but even with that it was agreed that a consultant be appointed to look into it.