The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s (KBTH) renal dialysis unit is issuing a shutdown warning because the facility is unable to get funding to buy supplies needed to provide treatment.
Prof. Vincent Boiman, the head of the unit, claims that the unit loses GH₵380 with each dialysis session, which adds up to debt.
According to Prof. Boiman, the circumstances could result in the unit closing and are currently having an impact on service delivery.
“Every time we dialyze one person at GH₵380, we lose another GH₵380 because the actual cost is more than double what the patients are paying now,” he stated in an interview with JoyNews. In reality, we are paying for expenses that we are incurred with.
“In terms of improving their quality of life, in terms of prolonging their treatment in the long term or giving them a chance of surviving for a long time and good treatment satisfaction. Probably, we may not be able to provide all these things because we are not charging at the rate that will help us to buy the consumables needed.”
“For instance, what if this unit closes in the next one or two months because we are running out of consumables and we are dialyzing at the rate that we can’t buy enough?.”
On February 9, Dr. Owusu Sekyere, KBTH’s Director of Medical Affairs, announced that the hospital had accrued an additional GH₵2 million in debt as a result of treating kidney patients.
