Kidney Patients Renew Call for Government Action as Dialysis Crisis Deepens

A Growing Emergency Behind Closed Ward Doors

Every week, thousands of Ghanaians living with kidney failure make a journey that decides whether they live or die: to a dialysis machine, if one is free, and if they can afford to keep going back.

Baffour Kojo Ahenkorah, President of the Renal Patient Association, the Forum for Kidney Patient Associations, and Buddha One, says the country's renal patients are grateful for the progress government has made, but insists that progress has not kept pace with the scale of the crisis.

"The government is doing its best," Ahenkorah said, "but more needs to be done. There are real challenges we live with every single day, and they cannot wait."

Machines Too Few, Patients Too Many

The numbers illustrate the strain. At Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital alone, more than 400 kidney patients depend on roughly 30 dialysis machines, only 20 of which are reserved for patients under the National Health Insurance Scheme's free dialysis programme.

Patients on that programme have reported arriving as early as 1:00 a.m. to secure a session that might not begin for hours, on machines that should ideally run about three sessions a day for safety and longevity but are instead operating almost continuously from Sunday through Friday.

Outside Accra, the picture is worse. At Cape Coast's government hospital, only five of 15 dialysis machines were reported functioning, forcing sessions to be cut from the clinically recommended four hours down to two and a half, a compromise that raises the risk of complications and preventable deaths.

For Ahenkorah's associations, this is the heart of the matter: a free dialysis policy means little if the machines and staff needed to deliver it are not there.

Progress Acknowledged, But Uneven and Fragile

Ahenkorah's associations are not dismissive of what government has done. Ghana's free dialysis programme, launched under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) in stages from mid-2024, has extended free or subsidised sessions to patients under 18 and over 60, and rolled out free treatment across 20 accredited hospitals nationwide, including Komfo Anokye, Cape Coast, and Ho Teaching Hospitals.

The NHIS has since indicated it wants to fully absorb dialysis into standard NHIS coverage, the same way other chronic conditions are covered, rather than continuing to fund it through ad hoc special allocations.

Parliament has also weighed in, with at least one lawmaker arguing that a GH¢2 million allocation for needy dialysis patients was grossly insufficient against the scale of need, and pushing for a GH¢10 million allocation instead.

Yet gaps remain glaring for patients aged 18 to 59, the working-age population least protected by the free and subsidised categories, and who still often face out-of-pocket costs once their cumulative dialysis bill exceeds the NHIS's coverage ceiling.

A single haemodialysis session in Ghana costs around GH¢200, and chronic dialysis, unlike acute kidney injury care, is still not fully covered by NHIS, leaving many families to pay from their own pockets or from community support, sometimes plunging entire households into financial crisis.

What the Associations Are Asking For

Speaking on behalf of the three bodies he leads, Ahenkorah outlined what he described as , achievable priorities:

Full integration of chronic dialysis into standard NHIS benefits, removing the current reliance on special allocations and short-term funding cycles that leave patients uncertain year to year.

Expansion of dialysis machines and functioning capacity outside Accra, particularly at regional hospitals like Cape Coast, where breakdowns have already forced dangerous cuts to treatment time.

Increased and consistent budgetary allocation for dialysis support, closer to the GH¢10 million level lawmakers themselves have called for, rather than allocations campaigners describe as inadequate given the scale of need.

Extension of full-cost coverage to working-age adults (18–59), who currently fall into a coverage gap between the free categories for the young and elderly.

Faster operationalisation of the Ghana Medical Care Trust Fund ("Mahama Cares"), which the NHIA has said will eventually take over funding for dialysis and other chronic disease care, but which patients say cannot come soon enough.

Nationwide public education and early screening, to catch kidney disease before it progresses to dialysis, particularly given the rising number of young patients, some between 19 and 30, now presenting with kidney failure linked to hypertension, diabetes, and poor diet.

A Warning Against Complacency

Health advocates tracking the sector have already warned that without coordinated, urgent action, Ghana risks a surge in preventable deaths from kidney disease, driven by the collision of rising incidence and strained capacity.

For Ahenkorah and the patients he represents, that warning is not abstract. It is the difference between a session that runs the full recommended four hours and one cut short by a struggling machine; between a working-age patient who can keep his job while managing treatment and one bankrupted by it; between a policy that exists on paper and one that reaches every patient who needs it.

"We are not asking for the impossible," Ahenkorah said. "We are asking government to finish what it has started, and to do it at the speed our members' lives require."

Mustapha Bature Sallama
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Analysis,

International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding. ( USIP)

Mustysallama@gmail.com
+233555275880

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