Pay or Die: The Agony of Pregnant Women in Hospitals, put together by investigative journalist, Francisca Enchill of Corruption Watch, has received international attention.
Investigations conducted in selected health facilities in the Greater Accra Region revealed a gory spectacle of pregnant women being confronted with the option of paying cash before accessing healthcare or left to die.
This is in spite of the existence of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) that states clearly that Maternal Healthcare is free, including even abortion complications.
The health facilities investigated in Part I of the report were the 37 Military Hospital, Mamprobi Hospital, popularly known as Mamprobi Polyclinic and Maamobi General Hospital.
The investigation established that primary health facilities, polyclinics, as well as the tertiary health facilities (referral and teaching hospitals) have set their own rules to extort money from pregnant women.
These illegal payments that have been made official are made to the banks and receipts are issued for services that, per the NHIS, are supposed to be completely free.
https://web.facebook.com/adomtv/videos/842860646642923
Throwing more light on the expose’, Germany-based DW TV’s AfricaLink engaged investigative journalist Francisca Enchill to discuss the ordeal pregnant women in some Ghanaian hospitals go through.
Below is how the popular global network aired the report under the headline: Ghana’s maternal health scandal:
Click link below:
https://m.dw.com/en/africalink-on-air-11-june-2021/av-57860606