Government 34% Cut of State Agencies Revenue Will Collapse the health sector, Zabzugu MP warns
The member of Parliament for Zabzugu in the northern region, Mr. Alhassan Uma has warned the governing New Patriotic Party of collapsing the health sector with its capping of revenue from government agencies.
The government new budget presented to parliament mandates government institutions to return 34% of their Internal Generated Fund (IGF) to government and keep 66% for their operations.
But health facilities across the country have started lamenting over the matter because of challenges facing the sector —purchasing consumables and paying allowances to auxiliary staff.
Mr. Umar who is a member of the select committee on health said all government hospitals the committee visited are not happy about the government’s decision to take 34 % of their IGF.
The health sector, he noted, needs political commitment to deal with services/client services and financing and infrastructure problems. Hospitals will suffocate under The new tax regime introduced by the current government the Zabzugu MP pointed out.
The NDC government under the late president Mills and former President John Mahama made conscious efforts to improve the health sector and the current government needs and current government need to to show serious commitment instead of engaging in rhetorics.
Problems confronting the health sector he observed cannot be achieved without a meaningful and reliable source of funds. The health committee as part of its mandate visited one district hospital, a regional hospital and a teaching hospital ospital.
They visited the selected hospitals to have first hand information about their operations and the challenges facing them.
During their visit to the Walewale district hospital, the Tamale Central (regional hospital) and the Tamale Teaching hospital, both management expressed their unhappiness about 34% revenue cut.
Speaking to Zaa News in an interview, Mr Umar said Ghana’s health sector risks a total collapse if the government failed to revisit the percentage it is taking from government institutions and agencies.
Mr Umar said the NPP claim that it has cleared all the outstanding balance from the hospitals with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), is laughable because the 34% cut of IGF has the tendency of crippling hospitals already struggling to break-even.
The health sector he added are there to make profit and the tax regime is just not a good policy for hospitals in particular.
On the ambulance issue, the MP described the situation as a national disaster adding no district hospital has an ambulance from the government. The ambulances in some of the districts he said are donated by some MPs and some of them are not up to standard.
State of Tamale Central Hospital (Regional hospital)
Commenting on the northern regional hospital, Mr Umar said the facility is just a name and doesn’t fit the status of a regional hospital, pointing out that the supposedly regional hospital has no ambulance and faces several challenges. And to make matters worse, the central central hospital has no ambulance, and lacks almost everything a regional hospital needs to operate.