The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital KATH has begun implementing the free dialysis policy introduced by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA).
This happened after Management of KATH received an official letter from the National Health Insurance Authority to roll out the policy.
“Even though the policy was announced to take effect on June 1, we had to still charge patients as we were yet to receive any official document to begin the free services. Now that the official letter is in, we had to commence.
“Per the letter, we will reimburse those who have paid before the formal notification of the package to the hospital”, Dr Yaw Opare Larbi, Deputy Medical Director at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital stated.
The intervention is to bring relief to patients who have had to cough up at least 500 cedis per session.
“This is a relief for us because it’s sometimes difficult raising money continuously for dialysis. We only hope this intervention goes beyond the 6 months period”, 61-year-old Enoch Osei pleaded.
Kidney patients below 18 and 60 and above will enjoy 8 sessions in a month for free whilst those within the age bracket of 19 and 59 benefit only 2 sessions.
The Ashanti Regional Health Director, Dr Emmanuel Tinkorang however wants government to commit more funds in the health infrastructure for Ghana to also start organ transplant.
“As a nation, we should prepare to move to the next step which is kidney transplant. We are working towards the policy on organ transplant. We have to get the infrastructure and build capacity so as to effectively do organ transplant”.
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Free dialysis policy: We are waiting for official letter from Health Ministry – KATH Management
By Ibrahim Abubakar
