The renal dialysis unit of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is warning of a possible shutdown due to the facility’s inability to raise money to purchase consumables for service delivery. 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.
By: Connielove Mawutornyo Dzodzegbe
