Clients of the Ho Municipal Mutual Health Insurance Scheme are being given prescriptions for branded drugs allegedly by doctors at health centres instead of generic ones prescribed by the scheme. Scheme Claims Manager, Justin Danso, who made the charge, said instead of the doctors adhering to the specifics of the drugs prescribed by the scheme, they prescribe branded ones which are expensive and tend to create problems for pharmaceutical shops registered under the scheme. Speaking at a stakeholders’ forum, Mr. Danso said the situation has resulted in clients of the scheme opting for referral to the Regional Hospital instead of going through the health centres and clinics as required by the scheme guidelines. He said this has created doubt about the viability of the scheme. However, Dr. John Eleeza, Municipal Director of Health Services, has dispelled the notion that health personnel were sabotaging the scheme in favour of the "cash and carry" system. He explained that health professionals, especially doctors and nurses were still not conversant with the guidelines and the prescribed drugs, hence the notion that the scheme was being sabotaged. Dr. Eleeza observed that "medication should go beyond taking tablets or injections by patients". He said there is the need to keep the scheme alive by starting from the health centre level before referral in order not to collapse it. Prosper Pi-Bansah, the scheme manager, expressed misgivings about the rampant attendance of hospital by card-bearing members of the scheme, which could undermine it. Giving statistics between 2005 and 2006, he said the National Insurance Council supported the scheme with ¢2.4 billion, ¢136.8 million was realised from internally, generated sources, a total of ¢4.3 billion paid to community pharmaceutical shops and health centres, and ¢174.4 million on behalf of non-resident clientele. Charles Agboklu, board chairman of the Scheme, lamented the difficulty in the collection of premium from the informal sector and appealed to stakeholders to intensify public education on the scheme. Source: The Ghanaian Times