By Samuel Oyandogha
YENAGOA — Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Udeka Onuoha, Tuesday, said it was high time the police developed its medical and health care system like that of the Nigerian Army.

The Commissioner, who spoke during a police enrollee forum of the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS in Yenagoa, pleaded with the NHIS to make the status of police contributors to the scheme clearer.

While calling on the NHIS to develop the health care insurance to favour contributors, he said, “we have a large number, but our problem is that we don’t know where we belong under the scheme.

“The force in the state had found itself with different health insurance schemes, from which it cannot easily detach itself. We must develop our medical and health care system just like the army.”

Zonal Coordinator of the NHIS in the South-South, Mr. Nasir Ikhario, said more than 50 percent of police officers in the country were not covered under the scheme and could not enjoy its numerous benefits, which could be obtained with just N550.

He said, “NHIS requires the support of all to succeed and we are going to ensure that the Ministries give contributors the necessary documentation. We are also going to educate contributors of their rights.”

According to him, some of the challenges of the NHIS included the agitation by pharmacies and drug outlets, that they did not want to be paid through hospitals, which ere primary health care providers.

He explained that health care providers had further complicated the system by telling enrollees under the scheme that they were paying only N550 per month when they arrived certain hospitals for treatment.

“Some contributors insisted on branded drugs when they get to hospitals and refuse to take the bulk supplies under the NHIS,” he added.