Chairman of Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane, has called for urgent investment in well-equipped neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) across the country to improve survival rates for preterm and critically ill newborns.

Speaking at JoyNews' national dialogue on newborn health, Dr. Nawaane stressed that "Ghana must scale up the number of fully functional NICUs with modern equipment and dedicated monitoring teams" to adequately manage complications that put newborns at risk.

According to him, the availability of more standard neonatal intensive care centres would be meaningless if families cannot afford to use them, pointing to the country’s health financing challenges as a major barrier to accessing specialised newborn care.

He disclosed that the Health Committee will, within the next month, meet with the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to push for neonatal intensive care services to be included under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Dr. Nawaane questioned why NICU services remain excluded despite the fact that many related medical interventions technically fall under NHIS coverage.

He blamed the challenge on poor tariffs, which make it unprofitable for facilities to offer these services under the insurance scheme.

“The truth of the matter is that a lot of the things actually come under NHIS, but because of poor tariffs, facilities cannot run NICUs effectively under the scheme,” he said.

He stated that improving neonatal care is not only a medical necessity but also a national responsibility, as timely and affordable interventions can significantly reduce preventable newborn deaths.

Dr. Nawaane reiterated Parliament’s commitment to pursuing reforms that will expand access to quality neonatal care and protect Ghana’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens.