The Health Ministry has summoned the administration of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in relation to a new fee levied on renal patients who attend the facility’s Renal Unit for dialysis treatments.
The hospital has come under fire following news of a review of its dialysis costs.
Isaac Ofie, the Health Ministry’s Head of Public Relations, said the hospital’s administration will be brought before the ministry to explain why the additional price was implemented without clearance from the Ministry or Parliament.
“Before you increase [fees], there is a need for proper procedure or caution to be taken, extending the proposal or the proposed price to Parliament for approval thus the fees before you charge,” Ofie said. “But this has not gotten to us yet and even if it has gotten to the ministry, it should be before Parliament and Parliament will have to approve that before it is charged.”
“It is in line with this that the ministry has summoned [the hospital’s management] for an urgent meeting and then quickly they have to withdraw the urgent price that they have put out there,” he added.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, told the media that the increased charges had affected only six patients and that the problem would be resolved.
“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,” Ampomah stated. “It has already been internally remedied and we are also looking at what went wrong and how to avoid it next time.”
