The CEO of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, says the upward adjustment in dialysis costs at the renal unit was premature.
Dr. Ampomah explains there was a breach in the review process and the hospital is rectifying the issue.
“Yes, a notice went up but unfortunately, that was a premature notice or it was a bit of jumping the gun. The fact of the matter is that our current charges for renal dialysis were set some years ago and obviously, with changes in the exchange rate, et cetera, there needs to be a review,” he disclosed.
The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) increased the cost of renal dialysis from GHS¢380 to GHS¢765.42.
The increment infuriated the public who are concerned about the affordability of the treatment.
Dialysis is a life-saving treatment for people with kidney failure.
Speaking to Dr. Randy Abbey on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Thursday, September 28, 2023, the CEO of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital broke down the review process at the hospital.
“First of all, the unit in question would come up with its input costs and then make a proposal for review which will go through the head of the medical department and then go through the director of medical affairs and at this level, there’s some scrutiny that is done. It comes to the chief executive who discusses this with management and if we think this is justified, we then pass it on to Parliament through the Ministry of Health so that under the Fees and Charges Act, this can be approved and then after 21 days we can apply the new types so this is a process,” he explained.
“The current notice that went up it’s even at the…. stage it hadn’t even come up to the management level yet so that was a premature notice that went up. But in these days of social media, I think somebody took a shot of it and then it went viral because administratively, the communication has gone from the director of medical affairs to the unit to let them know that there’s a process so let us go to the processing,” he added.
“At the moment, there is some under-recovery going on and we were discussing with the stakeholders to look at how we can mitigate the impact on the renal dialysis unit,” he stressed.
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah indicated that there will be a review of the renal dialysis costs but the increment that went viral on social media is costly.
“At the moment, we pay in Euros so definitely if you look at the trends over the last two years you realize that there definitely has to be some adjustments but to the extent of adjustment that is where at each level we have to scrutinize and make sure we are not passing on unnecessary burden unto the patients so there is a kind of balancing act that we are doing. We want to be able to service and at the same level we also do not want to burden our patients unnecessarily,” he stated.
