‘Incorporate herbal medicine on insurance scheme’

THE President of the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Associations (GHAFTRAM), Agya Kwaku Appiah, has urged the government to as well incorporate traditional medicine into the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
He said the Traditional Medicine Practice Council, mandated to be set up by the Traditional Medicine Practice Act 575 passed in 2000, should be established to facilitate their incorporation into the NHIS.
Mr Appiah made the appeal at an advocacy seminar organised by SMILE Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, and sponsored by the Business Sector Advocacy Challenge (BUSAC) Fund in Accra yesterday.
He said the Act required the establishment of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council, detailing its objective and functions, membership, tenure of office and the registration of practitioners, among other things, but sadly enough, this had still not been done.
He pointed out that the absence of the council was undermining the progress they were making as practitioners and producers, particularly with the introduction of the NHIS.
Mr Appiah was optimistic that the council, when established, would change the way traditional medical practice was perceived in Ghana.
Key among some of the challenges the federation was facing, Mr Appiah indicated, were the registration of practitioners, licensing of the practices and ways to regulate the preparation and sale of herbal medicine.
The Executive Director of SMILE Ghana, Mr Paul Oduro Frimpong, said the non-implementation of the provisions of the Act was not only threatening the growth of the businesses of members of the association, but was also undermining efforts aimed at providing affordable medicine in the country.“The situation has made it difficult for recognition of traditional medical practice and practitioners as bona fide health service providers in Ghana,” he stated.
Mr Frimpong explained that currently, China had succeeded in mainstreaming their traditional medicine into their health delivery system such that they were now exporting their health care products to other parts of the world, including Ghana.
That, he said, did not auger well for the industry in Ghana, because it affected the competition between them and foreign practitioners, hence affecting the country’s efforts at reducing poverty.