Kuntanase (Ash), July 18, GNA – The free medical care for pregnant women policy which came into effect this month has within two weeks of its implementation made a great impact on the lives of people in the Bosomtwi District of Ashanti Region.
Briefing the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Kuntanase, Mr Frank Ababio, Deputy Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the Bosomtwi National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) said 797 pregnant women had reported to the scheme’s office at Kuntanase to process documents to enable them access free health care.
He indicated that majority of the pregnant women who reported to the office did not have NHIS cards due to lack of financial resources. Mr Ababio said although the policy was laudable, it was having a great toll on the schemes human resources and appealed to the government to help increase the staffing of the scheme since they were now being overstretched due to the new policy.
He attributed the huge patronage to the intensive public education in all communities in the district by his outfit.
At the Kuntanase government’s hospital, Madam Juliana Wood, a staff Midwife told the GNA that since the inception of the policy 52 women in their advance stages of pregnancy who had never been to hospital since they become pregnant had reported for a check up at the facility with some of them carrying pregnancies as old as six to eight months. The staff Midwife indicated that the policy would reduce infant and maternal mortality cases.
Miss Christiana Koomson, a resident of Esreso in the Bosomtwi District who is a beneficiary of the policy commended the government for the policy which had come to rescue most pregnant women who could not access antenatal care due to poverty.
She however cautioned women not to use this as an advantage to give birth to too many children since after producing such children, the government was not the one going to cloth, feed and shelter them.
