By Peter Agengre
The Physician Specialist at the Renal Dialysis Centre of the Upper East Regional Hospital, Dr. Emmanuel Akatibo has raised an alarm that the centre would advise itself on an alternative to sustaining its operations if the National Health Insurance Authority does not intervene for the way forward. He mentioned that the facility has run out of consumables for some time now and may rely on external support in the coming weeks.
“For now we follow what management asked us to do. So for now management asked us to continue; I don’t know when because, the last time I checked our consumables were going down. So I don’t know whether management is going to be able to secure money somewhere else to buy the consumables for us. I don’t know if they have gotten assurance from health insurance, I’m not privy to that. But for now they have instructed us to continue the free dialysis for them so we are doing just that,” He lamented.
GBCNews gathered that some patients on the 6th and 7th January 2025 were made to pay for their hemodialysis at the Upper East Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga. Though hospital administration initially run the service to patients at no cost following a request from NHIA in December 2024, there was no clear cut on how they were going to sustain it.
“Per the initial communication that came last year, we were not part of the people who gave the free dialysis to the patients. Our facility was only recently added to the list of facilities offering free dialysis. We didn’t even know what code we were going to use for claims and all that. There was supposed to be a meeting with NHIA to that regard but we couldn’t take part in that meeting, because the letter came late.” Mr. Akatibo explained.
“December is over and we haven’t got any clear-cut communication yet. Are we continuing it for free or not? If we are continuing, we code are we going to use? So all these were gaps in communication and the hospital was running out of consumables for the dialysis. The patients were made to pay so that we could get some consumables to treat them and keep the receipts while we make efforts to get NHIA and what’s the way forward in terms of the payments.” He stressed.
There has been public outcry on social media that patients receiving dialysis treatment at the Regional Hospital in Bolgatanga were tasked to pay for the service when it is supposed to be free. But according to Mr. Emmanuel Akatibo, “they were told to keep the receipts of payments safe so that when NHIA reimburses us, then we reimburse their monies back to them. They were told and they’re aware.”
