Public Health Expert Dr. Thomas Anabah has pleaded with the government of Ghana to set up a fund to meet the financial needs of kidney patients in Ghana.
At the moment, he said, patients needing dialysis treatment have had to sell their properties to enable them to pay for the treatment.
“The total number of patients on dialysis as of October 2023 is 1,195 patients; some need dialysis twice a week. Is it not possible for the government to intervene and set up a fund to help meet the financial needs of these people?
“It is a fact that if you are supposed to have dialysis because you, unfortunately, fall sick of chronic renal failure, your relatives will have to sell virtually all their properties to help you live if you want to live for a year,” he was speaking on the Ghana Tonight show on TV3 last Wednesday, which was monitored by Ahotor News desk
He was reacting to the reopening of the Renal Dialysis Unit to out-patients by the Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. The unit was reopened following a directive by the Minister of Health.
The Unit was shut in May for partial renovation only to be reopened to patients at an increased cost.
Agitations over the proposed cost from GH¢380 to GH¢765.42 led to the immediate closure of the facility though intensive care was being administered for serious cases.
In a latest development, the CEO of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) Dr. Bernard Okoh Boye is also advocating to the government to establish a kidney fund which will go to the departments of kidney and Cardio. He also called for taxes on kidney consumables scrapped and also asked the government to directly buy the costive consumables.
KAAKYIRE NYAMEKYE DANSOA
Elizabethgyebi215@gmail.com
