President Akufo-Addo has asked the Ministry of Health and the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to create a thorough strategy outlining how the government can effectively fund kidney treatment.
This was revealed by Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah after a group of medical physicians from the Private Health Facilities Associations petitioned the government about the recent dialysis crisis in the country.
“When the matter came up the President instructed the Health Authorities to examine it and come to the table with various recommendations on how to deal with it and I do know those recommendations are due in the next couple of weeks. By both I mean the National Health Insurance Authority and the Ministry of Health.”
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Dr Samuel Boakye Donkor, Vice President of the Association, also urged the government to seek a tax exemption for any medical equipment, including dialysis machines, imported into the nation to aid treat patients.
“The number of kidney cases is alarming, it keeps increasing daily. We want to get more machines so we can treat our Ghanaian people but it is really expensive to get the machine into our country. When they get to the port the amount of money you have to pay, the duties you have to pay, so we are pleading with the government if tax waiver will be granted so we can bring more.”
Ghanaian dialysis patients were recently incensed after the Renal Dialysis Unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital declared on Wednesday, September 27, that the cost of a dialysis session will increase from GH¢380 to GH¢765.42.
Within 48 hours of Ghanaians being enraged about the increased kidney dialysis fee, the hospital reversed its decision.
However, beginning of May, outpatients are no longer welcome at the Korle-Bu renal unit. According to reports, the facility was shuttered owing to a lack of consumables.
People are dying as a result of the closure, according to the Renal Patients Association of Ghana, which has requested the management of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) to reopen the renal unit to outpatients.
The hospital was given a 24-hour deadline by the Parliament’s Health Committee’s minority caucus to restore the facility, but management rejected the request.
