Former President John Dramani Mahama, the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) has promised Ghanaians an insurance-free primary healthcare, if he is voted into power on December 7, 2024.
He said healthcare access at the Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) facilities, Health Centres, Clinics and Polyclinics would not require an active National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) membership card of the client.
Mr Mahama announced this at the weekend at Goripie, a community in the Wa East District, during his campaign tour of the Upper West Region.
He indicated that the initiative would form part of his grand agenda of ensuring healthy lives of Ghanaians through his proposed “Community Healthcare Programme”.
The former President said, under the programme, an active NHIS membership card would only be required of a patient seeking healthcare services at the secondary health facilities including the district and regional hospitals and those in tertiary institutions.
Mr Mahama added that they would recruit community health workers and provide them with the necessary working tools to help prevent preventable diseases such as diabetes in the communities.
“We are going to recruit community health workers who are going to be responsible for preventive and community primary health care. They will visit your house from time to time.
“They will have the machine to measure your blood pressure to make sure that you don’t have hypertension and that you don’t come down with a stroke.
They will have the machine for measuring your sugar level to make sure that you are not suffering from diabetes without knowing it,” he explained.
Mr Mahama also announced a region-based recruitment into the security services without considering one’s academic results to ensure fair distribution of job opportunities within the security services.
“Even if you don’t have the school certificate with English and Mathematics, you just have an NVTI (National Vocational Training Institute) Vocational Training Certificate that shows that you are a driver, you are a plumber, you are an electrician, you are a dressmaker …
Whatever skill you have, we would use that certificate to employ you into the police service, into immigration, into prisons, into fire service, into customs,” he explained.
Other interventions the former President mentioned included farmer service centres with credit-based subsidised services to help improve agriculture production in the country and non-payment of school fees by first year tertiary students.
Dr Godfred Seidu Jasaw, the Member of Parliament for Wa East Constituency, observed that some youth in the constituency were into small-scale mining as a source of employment.
He, therefore, said if the NDC came to power it would regularise small-scale mining and put in measures to ensure responsible mining without destroying the environment.
The traditional leaders of the communities visited made requests ranging from improved road networks, enhanced health facilities, rural electrification and security among others.
In a message read on his behalf, Naa Dikomwine Domalae, the Paramount Chief of Daffiama Traditional Area, appealed to the Former President, to upgrade the Daffiama Health Centre to a Polyclinic to enhance healthcare service delivery at that facility.
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