By Godfred A. Polkuu
Bolgatanga, Nov 20, GNA – The Upper East Regional Office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has supplied 103 pints of blood to the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga to boost health service delivery.
The Authority, as part of activities to mark its 20th Anniversary celebrations, organized blood donation exercise at the Zamse Senior High Technical School in the Bolgatanga Municipality to equip the hospital’s blood bank.
The donation exercise, dubbed “20years of care, one pint at a time: Donate for life,” involved staff of the Authority, students and members of the public who trooped in to donate.
Donors, especially the students, were given some beverages to replenish their energies, new registrants enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and those with invalid cards were renewed.
Mr Kasimu Abudulai, Acting Regional Director of the Authority, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during the exercise, said the year-long celebrations was themed: “Health heroes, 20 years strong.”
He explained that the NHIA had three strategic stakeholders, and the heroes in its 20 years operations were the staff of the Authority, healthcare professionals and clients.
“We are health heroes because we have worked together for the past 20 years as a team and ensured health insurance grew from grass to grace. Now the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) of Ghana is one of the best health insurance schemes in Africa and the world,” he said.
Mr Abudulai said the Authority, in its continuous contributions to health service delivery, initiated the nationwide exercise to ensure blood banks in public hospitals across the country did not lack blood for service delivery.
He said after the blood donation exercise, the Authority would undertake the “MyNHIS App” exercise to educate members of the public on the App.
“Last year in November, the Vice President launched our digital application system; MyNHIS App, that can be downloaded from Apple or Play store,” the Acting Director recalled.
He said staff of the Authority from November 29 to 30, would visit lorry stations across the Region to intensify their campaign for members of the public to adopt the software and enroll on to the Scheme devoid of the long queues often seen at their offices.
“Once you have the Ghana Card, we will assist you to download MyNHIS App on your phone, guide you to do the enrollment yourself and also support others,” Mr Abudulai said.
Madam Ajaratu Issah, the Head of Blood Mobilization Unit at the Regional hospital, told the GNA that donors underwent series of screening exercises, including assessment of their vital signs to be sure they were fit to donate.
She said the NHIA was one of their partners in health service delivery and described the initiative by the Authority as “Good and laudable” and noted that the move would help equip the blood bank to save lives.
“Blood should be waiting for emergencies, but not for emergencies to come and we do not have blood. Blood has no artificial substitute and so blood donation is needed to save lives,” she said.
Madam Issah thanked the staff and management of the NHIA for the initiative and appealed to other organizations to emulate the same.
Some staff of the Authority and students encouraged members of the public not to relent in donating blood to save lives.
GNA