Health Ministry Summons Management Of Korle-Bu Over New Dialysis Fee

The Health Ministry has summoned the management of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital over a new fee being charged kidney patients who visit the Renal Unit of the facility for dialysis sessions.

The hospital has come under intense criticism after reports of a review of its dialysis charges.

The Head of Public Relations at the Health Ministry, Isaac Ofie, said the hospital’s management would be hauled before the ministry to explain why the new fee was introduced without approval 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 Citi News that only six people have been affected by the new charges and the situation would be remedied.

“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 said. “It has already been internally remedied and we are also looking at what went wrong and how to avoid it next time.”

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