Accra, Nov. 22, - Send Ghana, a
policy research and advocacy non-governmental organisation, has asked
government to develop financial sustainability plan to manage the National
Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to avert the vicious cycle of indebtedness to
health providers.
It said although government made
some payment in 2017 there should be a plan to completely re-imbursement the
health providers to ensure efficient health services to Ghanaians.
Madam Clara Osei-Boateng, the
Director of Policy Advocacy Programme of Send Ghana, addressing the media on
the Organisation’s 2018 Post Budget Analysis in Accra on Wednesday, said there
should be a clear strategy by government to deal with the NHIS indebtedness
because the 2018 budget had not indicated how government would mobilise
resources to pay all the arrears to health providers.
The media encounter aims at
explaining the budget to the public, identify policy gaps and assess whether
the budget addressed citizens’ needs and priorities, as well as make inputs to
help address the aspirations of Ghanaians, especially the vulnerable people in
society.
The NGO analysed key thematic
areas in the budget such as social services, agriculture, health, financial
allocations to goods and services, education, water, sanitation and hygiene,
social and children protection.
Analysing some allocations to the
health sector, Madam Osei-Boateng said the 2018 budget saw the health sector
witnessing 4.6 per cent increase in allocation in nominal terms but in real
terms it declined by 0.1 per cent.
The budget allocations focused on
compensation, goods and services and capital expenditure, she noted.
She said compensation took 60 per
cent and 40 per cent went to goods and services (32 per cent) and capital
expenditure (eight per cent).
Madam Osei-Boateng noted that,
the non-availability of immunization vaccines at the various health facilities
across the country increased infant mortality from 5.8 per in 2016 to 7.5 per
cent in 2017.
She, however, said the budget
failed to mention a strategy to deal with infant mortality in 2018 and
suggested that sufficient funds should be made available to procure vaccines to
reverse the negative trend.
She also asked government to
resource Community-based Health Services, especially in rural areas, in order
to bring health care to the door steps of the people.
On Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
(WASH) budget, she said, there was 40 per cent decline in nominal terms in
financial allocation in 2017, while the 2018 budget was reduced by 31 per cent,
adding the WASH budget was 0.5 per cent in 2017, but it reduced by 0.3 per cent
in the 2018 budget.
Madam Osei-Boateng said
construction of water facilities, pipelines, sewage and drainage as well as
basic household toilets were capital intensive projects, therefore the
reduction of the WASH budget would negatively affect the programme.
She noted that, Ghana was the
seventh in the world in terms of poor sanitation condition, but government had
not mention how it would resolve sanitation issues in the 2018 budget.
“Government has not stated
whether it established the National Sanitation Fund as promised in the 2017
budget and how much was realised so government should tell Ghanaians details on
that proposal,” she queried.
Madam Osei-Boateng said
government promised to construct 15,000 household toilet in Greater Accra
Region, especially in deprived communities and 5,000 toilet facilities in rural
communities in the North, Upper East and Upper West regions in 2017, but
nothing was said about it in the 2018 budget.
“Now government has made another
promise to construct 200,000 household toilets and 2,000 institutional latrines
in the 2018 budget so we need to interrogate it to find out how it will raise funds
to do it.
“So if government has not
established the National Sanitation Fund then it should do it so that we can
mobilise resources to manage sanitation issues in the country so that the
nation will be less dependent on donor support,” she emphasised.
The NGO expressed its intention
to forward the independent analysis it has done on the 2018 budget to
Parliament and Government for consideration so that the budget would address
the concerns of civil society organisations.
GNA
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