Management of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has increased the price of dialysis treatment from GH₵380.00 to GH₵765.42, representing a 101 per cent increment.
The Public Relations Officer(PRO) of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Mustapha Salifu in an interview explained that the increment is a result of the removal of tax exemption and high import duties on products for dialysis.
He added that the Dialysis Unit would be forced to shut down if the price of treatment is not increased at this crucial moment.
“If you do a real analysis of the cost you will get about GH₵850 cedis. Previously it was down because the variables were being taken care of by the state but now we have to pay the cost ourselves and all these things have been factored into the cost”.
“There used to be a tax exemption but now it’s no more and we have to pay the import duties also ourselves which were all previously paid by the government”.
“If we say we want to run it as it used to be then we have to shut down the dialysis plant if we don’t increase the price”, Mr. Salifu noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report with Joy News.
“What we are doing is not like we want to make a profit but the real assessment of the cost as I said will be like GH₵850 cedis but we need to cushion the patients a bit and so we think settling on GH₵765 is what we can manage,” Mr. Salifu added.
Dr Adam Atiku of the Renal and Dialysis Unit, KBTH in 2016 disclosed that the Dialysis Unit records 20 new cases of kidney failure every day, 60 new cases of Kidney failures every week, and 100 people under dialysis every day.