By Florence Afriyie Mensah
Kumasi, April 09, GNA -Stakeholders at a zonal consultation meeting, have called on the government to address challenges facing the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to help strengthen and improve healthcare delivery.
They argued that, although the NHIS was a good policy, there were some implementation gaps that needed to be addressed, citing for example that patients on dialysis and diabetic patients, should be considered and allocation made for such ailments.
These concerns were raised at a town hall meeting organized by the STAR-Ghana Foundation in Kumasi.
The meeting formed part of the Manifesto Influencing Initiative by STAR-Ghana for the upcoming 2024 general elections.
The main objective of the meeting was to provide a platform for diverse stakeholders from the Ashanti, Bono, Bono-East and Ahafo regions, to engage in constructive dialogue on key issues affecting their communities, with the aim of fostering inclusive participation and contribute to the development of comprehensive manifestoes by the various political parties for the 2024 general elections.
Issues discussed included health, education and social protection.
The stakeholders also called on the government to offer employable skills to beneficiaries of the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty, (LEAP), a social protection policy, instead of allocating meagre stipends which did not guarantee life sustainability.
This, according to them, would help elevate the lives of these marginalized groups and sustain them for life.
They also appealed to successive governments to have a permanent programme to leverage on and ameliorate the suffering of the marginalized groups in society.
Mr. Issac Addae Kusi, a participant from Takyiman, talking about education, said there were a lot of challenges facing the Free SHS implementation.
He said feeding alone was taking a colossal amount of money from the state.
It was, therefore, high time the government discussed with stakeholders, including the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs), to find ways to assist to help sustain the policy.
Mr. Prince Debrah, an Assembly member at the Kwadaso Municipal Assembly, also called on the government to insist on the inculcation of disability-friendly facilities at public places.
He noted that these concerns had been raised by many in society, but there was still a gap in the construction of new public facilities.
Dr. Ernestina Tetteh, the Project Manager, STAR-Ghana Foundation, said manifestos had become very important because politicians used them to seek audience from electorates.
She called on parties to ensure their manifestos aligned with development plans for progress.
GNA