Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawamia says government is committed to making treatment of kidney disease more affordable for all Ghanaians in the coming years.
Announcing the initiative taken by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to offer free services to Renal patients in the country for the next six months, Dr. Bawumia said Ghanaians, 18 years and below and 60 years and above will enjoy the dialysis treatment effective June 3rd, 2024.
Meanwhile, dialysis treatment for renal patients between 18 and 60 years will be subsidized.
According to the NHIA, vulnerable patients aged under 18 and above 60 years will receive all eight (8) free dialysis sessions per month under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from June to December 2024.
Meanwhile, Patients aged between 18 to 59 years from Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Cape Coast Teaching Hospital (CCTH), Efia Nkwanta Regional Hospital (ENRH), Ho Teaching Hospital (HTH) and Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) except Korle Bu will receive two (2) dialysis sessions per month at GH¢982.00, that is, GH¢491.00 per session.
The NHIA in a statement explained that funding for the free dialysis programme was based on parliament’s approval of Two Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢2,000,000.00) in the NHIA’s 2024 Allocation Formula to support needy and vulnerable patients seeking dialysis treatment.
Additionally, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia mentioned government’s support for sickle cell sufferers.
“Another thing that I pushed to make sure we got was hydroxyurea for sickle cell sufferers. A very expensive drug but we have now brought it under NHIS and sickle cell sufferers are getting hydroxyurea,” he said.
Speaking during his engagement with the clergy and Muslim Council in Cape Coast as a part of his campaign tour of the central region on Monday, Dr. Bawumia touted government’s efforts at health care delivery in the country emphasizing “we have done quite a lot.”
“The point is we can move forward. We will push One Constituency, One Ambulance, Agenda 111 and other programmes that we are making sure we are able to do. As vice president, these are the issues going for oil policy, all of that, that I have been working on. A lot of progress that sometimes we ourselves don’t even realize some of the things we are doing”
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Source: Aba Aikins Appah & Eric Sekyi/ATLFMNEWS
