Baffour Kwadwo Ahenkorah President of the Renal Patients Association has disclosed that some of their members on renal dialysis treatment could not pay for the increment in the cost of dialysis Sunday, when they visited the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.
He says although they learnt of the increment in fees about two months ago, they were not informed when it was going to take effect.
According to him, his checks with Korle-Bu couldn’t reveal what date the new fees was going to be effected, only to hear that some of their members visited the facility and had to return home without treatment.
He has been explaining to Alfred Ocansey on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Tuesday, May 14, 2024, that “I was reliably informed that Parliament had approved the dialysis from GHC380 to GHC491 about 2 months ago so I communicated to my people that this is what has come up but it’s yet to be implemented by Korle-Bu. So all along, once in a while, I would ask Korle-Bu management, ‘when is this thing happening?'” adding that they couldn’t tell him because Korle-Bu normally does not deal with cash, and when one of their members visited there for the treatment on Sunday, “it was there that she was told that the cost was no more GHC380, it is now GHC491 so officially, the whole thing started Sunday.”
“The people who went for Sunday session, they paid the GHC491 but not all of them were able to pay because they were shocked. As at Friday morning I didn’t even know they were making the changes. It was after the changes was made and somebody went, paying before the person was told that the prices have moved on to GHC491,” he explained.
Meanwhile, CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr. Aboagye Da-Costa, has revealed that government will in the coming days, disburse some GH¢2 million that was approved by Parliament to assist in providing dialysis treatment for the needy.
The funds which were approved in March this year, followed an appeal by kidney patients for a government intervention after increment in the cost of dialysis.
Dr Aboagye Da-Costa is hopeful the disbursement will bring some relief.
“We have made progress on dialysis. That committee that was set up to implement the disbursement has concluded its report and I can say that within the next few weeks, we will begin the disbursement to the various hospitals”, he revealed.
“What was approved by Parliament was for the needy, this will supplement for patients in Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye and the Cape Coast hospital,” he added.
Renal Dialysis Unit: Korle-Bu management calls on Parliament to expedite approval of new fees
