Dialysis fee increase affected only six patients – Korle-Bu

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, has clarified that the recent increase in the cost of renal dialysis from GHS¢380 to GHS¢765.42 was not sanctioned by the hospital’s management or approved by Parliament.

He told Umaru Sanda Amadu on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News that only six patients were unfortunately affected by the new charge, which was a result of a miscommunication by the Renal Dialysis Unit of the hospital.

Dr Ampomah said that the balance will be offset for the affected patients’ next sessions.

“Fortunately, this was noticed very quickly and so when we checked, it was only six people who had paid this amount but it is going to be offset because these are patients that are on chronic dialysis so it is going to be offset. It has already been internally remedied and we are also looking at what went wrong and how to avoid it next time,” he said.

Dr Ampomah explained that the new charge was a proposal that emanated from the Renal Dialysis Unit, which is factored into a proposal that is then forwarded to the head of department, then to the director of medical affairs, and then to the chief executive officer who then sits with a central management team to discuss, review it, and then make sure that there is a reasonable justification for the prices and then forwarded to Parliament through the Ministry of Health for approval.

“But in this instance, what happened was that it had reached the head of the department level but somebody jumped the gun to put out this notice but internally, when this was noticed, a memo was sent from the director of medical affairs directing them [the Renal Dialysis Unit] to take it down and wait until approval had been granted before instituting new charges but unfortunately, because somebody had gone there and taken a photo which went viral, it then appeared as if we had instituted it,” he said.

-Citinewsroom