The CEO of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has clarified the supposed notice of increment of dialysis costs at the renal unit of the hospital.
Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Thursday morning disclosed that the notice alerting the public of an upward adjustment in the cost of dialysis making the rounds on social media is premature.
According to him, the proposed review is currently on the table but it is yet to be approved.
“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 told Dr. Randy Abbey.
“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.
The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital 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.
However, the CEO of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital said the hospital would be reasonable in increasing the dialysis cost.
“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.
