Parliament yesterday approved an amount GH¢516,830,855 million for the Ministry of Health for it operational expenditure in 2008.

The amount, which excludes revenue raised from the National Health Insurance Scheme is expected to be used to continue the fight against measles and other diseases, payment of personal emoluments, training programmes and other projects the ministry will embark upon.

Contributing to the motion before it was approved, Members wondered why the Ministry has not provided any statistics on maternal mortality in the country, saying that it will prove difficult to appropriately deal with the situation without any statistics.

They questioned why government continues to channel more funds into the NHIS when the body in charge of the fund has not utilised the funds for the programmes they are meant for.

The MPs lamented on the number of persons who are accessing the fund. According to them, though 9.5 million people have registered for the NHIS it is only 5.2 million people who actually access it, a situation they describe as unfortunate.

According to the MPs the situation where employees of Ministries, Departments and Agencies including those from the MOH claim medical refund is not the best, because it is an indication that they have not registered for the scheme.

They therefore called on the Ministry to consider as matter of urgency to put a policy in place to cover all MDAs for the scheme. They also called on the Ministry to make some funds available for research into traditional medicine.

The House also approved a sum of GH¢1, 0187, 530m, which excludes funds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund, for the Ministry of Education Science and Sports. The amount is expected to be used to start new and complete existing activities and projects of the ministry for the coming year.

Additionally, the House approved the budget sum of GH¢9,836,133million for the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture. The amount will be used by the ministry to pursue their programmes for 2008.