Accra, Jan. 11, - Some residents
of Tema have appealed to government to increase the number of National Health
Insurance scheme (NHIS) offices in the metropolis to address the problem of
long queues.
The residents, who spoke to the
Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Wednesday, said they wake up as early as 0300 hours
to join long queues just to register or to renew their health insurance cards.
Mr Jacob Amankwa told the GNA
that being in the queue was not a guarantee of getting the card.
“This is the struggle we have to
go through just to renew or register for our health insurance cards, mind you
it is not free, we actually pay for it yet one needs to join a long queue,
fight and struggle for days before you can get your card’’.
“I think the Government should
decentralize the registration process to every district in the country to avoid
this crowd and fights,’’ he said.
Desmond Yatopo, who claimed he
joined the queue as early as 0300 hours, was frustrated that he was nowhere
near the front as at 1400 hours.
“I came as early as 0300 hours
but it is almost 1400 hours and I am still here, if you ask them why the queue
is not moving they only tell you their system is down. I have other things to
do but my whole day is wasted,” he said.
“Some people came late but they
passed behind to go for their cards. I am only here to renew my card, the
people in there are not working according to the numbers they gave out’’, Ms
Jennifer Odai lamented.
An official of the Tema NHIS
office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the increasing number of
people was putting a lot of pressure on them.
Besides, some of the computers
being used for the process are very slow and do not help enhance smooth
processing of the registration cards, the source said.
When questioned about persons
jumping the queue to register, the source reluctantly said: ‘’That is
undeniable, you know sometimes people very close to you come here to register
and they expect you to do them a favour by helping them skip the queue and you
cannot say no to them, you know.’’
He urged government and top
officials at the National Health Insurance Scheme to help reduce the long
queues.
GNA
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