From Samuel Agbewode
The Chief Executive Officer of Sofort Resort Limited, a hospitality-oriented industry, Mr. Wisdom Amedoamedzi, says his organisation takes the necessary steps to promote good health among the people in the South Tongu District as his contribution to ensure the rapid development of the area.
Mr. Amedoamedzi explained that his organisation would work hard to ensure that the people were in sound health at all times, to enable them work more effectively to increase productivity to achieve the needed development.
This was during an interaction with the media during a two-day free registration exercise for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), as well as helping in renewing expired cards for those who could not renew them.
Mr. Amedoamedzi, who is a native of Tefle, noted that as a young man, he realised that many people in the district were not capable of going to health facilities and paying their bills, which made them not to attend hospital until the introduction of the NHIS, but still there existed those who could not afford the registration fee.
The Chief Executive Officer of Sofort Resort explained that in view of the challenges confronting the people concerning registering for the NHIS, his outfit decided to be organise special registration exercises for the needy in the district, resulting in the recent free registration exercise held at Sogakope, with the target of registering 1,000 new members and renewing expired cards within the two-day period.
Mr. Amedoamedzi said the Sogakope exercise was the second in a series, as the first was organised at Tefle in 2013, where over 500 people registered and renewed their cards.
He said that the number was likely to increase this year, considering the large number of people who thronged the two registration centers for the exercise, and was hopeful that the 1,000 target would be exceeded.
He pointed out that the large number of people was a clear indication that there were many people who could not register, therefore, were not benefitting from the scheme, saying, the NHIS concept had come to assist the vulnerable in society to enjoy free health services.
The CEO assured the people that his organisation would continue to organise such exercises frequently to ensure that everybody was registered under the scheme, and urged the people to take health issues more seriously to enable them to contribute meaningfully to development.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to this paper commended Mr. Amedoadzi for the gesture, which they pointed out was timely, because it was true that most of them largely depend on herbal medicines described by peddlers, but most of the times it turned out that their sicknesses was not what they initially thought it was, and later develops into something serious, forcing them to attend hospital for proper diagnoses and cure.
According to them, most of the time they had to borrow money from friends to address their health needs, a situation which did not encourage them to visit the health facilities
He also revealed that the NHIS was best since it enabled them to receive health care without any difficulty, but unfortunately, they could not afford to renew their cards.
The beneficiaries appealed to the Member of Parliament for South Tongu to emulate the good works of the Chief Executive of Sofort Resort.
The South Tongu District Manager of the NHIS, Mr. Joseph Wisdom Ahiadzi, confirmed that the initiative of Mr. Amedoamedzi had helped in promoting the activities of the scheme in the area.
Mr. Ahiadzi noted that the major challenge confronting the scheme was the inability of valid card holders to renew their cards, and that the regular intervention of the Chief Executive of Sofort Resort would go a long way to ensuring that people renewed their cards promptly to access free health care services under the scheme.
The South Tongu District Manager of the NHIS disclosed that his outfit normally organised registration exercises, but unfortunately, only few people respond.
However, Mr. Ahiadzi continued that anytime the CEO organised the free registration and renewal exercise, more people were seen participating, which was a clear indication that many people were unable to register and renew their cards due to poverty.
In a related development, the Sofort Resort Chief Executive also presented two motorbikes and a tent to the Ho Municipal Police Command to enable the personnel at a check-point on Ho-Adidome-Sogakope road to work more effectively, in view of the poor conditions under which he saw them working.
Mr. Amedoadzi further explained that he was motivated to provide the tent for the police because he was recently travelling from Sogakope to Ho and saw police personnel under a shed built with palm fronds, while one of the personnel was also standing by the roadside waiting for a passenger vehicle to go home, so he decided to pick him to Ho.
According to the CEO, he then decided to provide the police with the two motorbikes to enable them to have a means of transport anytime they close from work, as well as the tent to ensure a decent shed at the check-point.
The Ho Municipal Chief Executive, Mrs. Fafa Adinyirah, who received the keys of the motorbikes and the tents on behalf of the police, commended Mr. Amedoadzi for the gesture, saying it was encouraging that an individual had seen the important role the police had been playing in maintaining law and order in the region, and accordingly contributed to assisting them.
The Ho Municipal Police Commander, Superintendent Nicolas Opare Ofosuhene, thanked Mr. Amedoadzi for the gesture, stressing that the items had come at the right time, because the police at the various check-points did not have transport, and that the motorbikes would serve them well, as well as the provision of the tent to boost their moral to work harder.