Renal patients appeal to govt to settle Korle-Bu’s GH¢4m debt

The Renal Patients Association of Ghana has urged the government to settle the GH¢4 million debt owed by the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to suppliers of dialysis consumables.

The debt has resulted in the closure of the unit to outpatients, and unfortunately, 19 outpatients from the renal unit have lost their lives since its closure in May 2023.

Kojo Ahenkorah, spokesperson for the association, stressed that the payment of this debt is crucial to ending the closure of the renal unit to outpatients.

“We cannot fight the government, we are pleading with them,” Ahenkorah said in an interview with Citi News. “I don’t think Ghana cannot raise GH¢¢4 million within a day or tomorrow to pay this money. So we are just pleading with them because what will be the point that today you open and tomorrow you close again? Already people are dying, people are suffering.”

Ahenkorah also revealed that he was unable to afford dialysis at a private facility last Friday due to the closure of the unit at Korle-Bu.

Meanwhile, the outpatient department of the hospital’s Renal Dialysis Unit reopened on November 6, after being closed to outpatients since May 22, 2023.

The unit partially reopened on September 27, with an announcement of an increase in dialysis treatment per session from GH¢380 to GHS¢765.42.

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, directed the management of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to immediately reopen the unit last Thursday.