The President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana has accused the National Health Insurance Authority, NHIA, of misplaced priorities.

James Ohemeng-Kyei does not understand why claim payments will be in arrears for a number of months only for the Authority to invest in other activities he considers secondary.

Service providers have been lamenting over non payment of claims which have been in arrears for over seven months.

Some have threatened to turn away holders of the National Health Insurance Cards  because of the non-payment of claims.

President of the Pharmaceutical Society James Ohemeg- Kyei at a media briefing on Tuesday said the monies the NHIA use for building offices and the biometric registration project could rather be used to pay claims.

"When you haven't paid your providers is it necessary for you to embark on biometric registration" he asked

"If you are able to pay all your claims and you have extra money and you use it to undertake biometric registration we don't have a problem with that

"But when you have not been able to pay your claims for eight to ten months and people are suffering then how on earth do you go to put up buildings in health training institutions. Is that your core duty? he asked.

"They should attach more importance to claims payment as they do in writing cheques for their monthly salary," he charged.