The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) and the Ministry of Health have been instructed by President Nana Akufo-Addo to fashion out ways to deal with Ghana’s dialysis crisis, Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has revealed.
This followed a recent uproar among Ghanaians after the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital increased the cost of dialysis treatment from GHS380 to GHS765 per session.
Mr Oppong Nkrumah made the revelation when some medical doctors belonging to the Private Health Facilities Associations petitioned the government on the matter.
“When the matter came up, the president instructed the health authorities to examine it and come to the table with various recommendations on how to deal with it, and I do know those recommendations are due in the next couple of weeks”, Mr Nkrumah said.
“By both, I mean the National Health Insurance Authority and the Ministry of Health”, he explained.
At the encounter, the Vice President of the Association, Dr Samuel Boakye Donkor, said: “The number of kidney cases is alarming”, adding: “It keeps increasing daily”.
“We want to get more machines so we can treat our Ghanaian people but it is really expensive to get the machine into our country”, he complained. He said: “When they get to the port, the amount of money you have to pay, the duties you have to pay, so, we are pleading with the government if tax waiver will be granted so we can bring more.”