The unit was shut down almost two weeks ago without an official explanation, sparking outrage.

The President of the Kidney Patients Association, Baffour Ahenkorah, confirmed that three patients had died due to the closure of the unit.

Speaking in an interview, a member of the Health Committee and Member of Parliament for Central Tongu, Alexander Roosevelt, expressed shock and disappointment at the situation.

He recalled that, the National Insurance Authority had recently requested 2 million cedis to support kidney patients under 18 years and above 60 years, and had even announced the release of an additional 2 million cedis to settle the bills of renal patients at Korle-Bu Hospital.

“The National Insurance Authority appeared before our committee requesting an amount of 2 million cedis for payment of the bills of under 18 and above 60 people who have these conditions. And they also came out boldly a few months or weeks ago emphasising that they had released an amount of 2 million Ghana cedis and there was going to be an additional amount of 2 million that would be given to the Korle Bu hospital to settle the bills of people with renal cases.

“I am just surprised that I’m being told that the setup has been closed down mainly because they do not have medical supplies,” he told Citi News.

“I am just surprised. So does this mean that what the National Health Insurance Authority was telling us was just fiction? Does it mean that they were not telling us the truth? Whilst the presidential candidate of the NPP continues going on promising heaven.

“Is this where Ghana has reached? It’s a very serious situation. It’s something that one cannot fathom and I can understand. How can we joke with the health of our own people?,” the MP questioned.

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According to the Head of the Unit, Prof. Vincent Boiman, with every dialysis section, the unit loses GH₵380 which is accumulating as debt.

Prof. Boiman says the situation is now affecting service delivery and may lead to the shutting down of the unit.

Speaking to JoyNews, he said “Each time, we dialyse one person at GH₵380, we lose another  GH₵380  because the actual cost is more than double what the patients are paying now. We are actually incurring costs which is not being paid for.”

“In terms of improving their quality of life, in terms of prolonging their treatment in the long term or giving them a chance of surviving for a long time and good treatment satisfaction. Probably, we may not be able to provide all these things because we are not charging at the rate that will help us to buy the consumables needed.

“For instance, what if this unit closes in the next one or two months because we are running out of consumables and we are dialysing at the rate that we can’t buy enough?.”

On February 9, the Director of Medical Affairs at the KBTH, Dr Owusu Sekyere, said the facility had incurred another debt of GH₵2 million for treating kidney patients.

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Korle Bu had shut down its renal unit to out-patients in May due to a GHȼ4 million debt.

Hospital authorities had blamed the situation on the removal of tax and excise duty exemption on medical consumables which had doubled the prices of the essential commodities.

The hospital had earlier tried to increase fees for dialysis treatment from GH¢380 to GH¢765 to cover the cost, stating that should the old fees be maintained; the centre would not be able to stay open for more than a week.

However, after weeks of piling pressure on state authorities and hospital management, the renal unit was forced open.

Reacting to the opening of the unit, Dr. Beyuo said without the government providing the hospital with a sustainable financial plan and clearing its accumulated debts, the Unit may be forced to close down very soon.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, he explained that without a proper financial structure, the hospital’s debt will continue to accumulate and risks being blacklisted by service providers.

He said, “The opening that Korle Bu has declared open now is only going to take us to a state where we are worse off than where we began. What do I mean by worse off?

“We’re going to get to a place where one, even those who have money cannot get dialysis because if they use up all their consumables because they’ve been forced to use them.

“And my information is that from today, any patient Korle Bu dialyses for every single patient that pays the old fee of 380 cedis, Korle Bu is going to accumulate another debt of 380 cedis per session per patient.”

He further stated that when the hospital finally runs out of consumables, the unit will have to shut down completely once again, affecting general healthcare delivery in the country.

“The CEO mentioned to us that they need about GH¢961,000 a month to sustain the dialysis at the current rate. This is where that debt comes from.

“So if we haven’t answered this question what this means is that they’re going to run out of consumables, they’re not going to get consumables, and now my patient, a pregnant woman who is not having any chronic hypertension, whose only sin she has committed is being pregnant, trying to bring another human being into this world and develops a complication like eclampsia or pre-eclampsia with acute kidney injury who is potentially curable … these people are not even going to get the dialysis.

“So that is how we should see the problem and then ask hard questions,” he explained.

Meanwhile, the hospital management has urged parliament to expedite action on the proposed new fees – GH¢765 to “enable us to recover cost and sustain the service.”

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