The Minority Caucus in Parliament has chastised the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital for increasing the cost of renal dialysis from GHS¢380 to GHS¢765.42, describing the move as “illegal and outrageous.”
Speaking on Eyewitness News, the Minority Caucus’ spokesperson on health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said that the hospital cannot set its own fees and charges without parliamentary approval.
“Korle-Bu is a public institution so they cannot set their own fees and charges and any charge should come through Parliament through the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of course, I am also a member of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee and I don’t know of any such outrageous amount approved for the charge for dialysis and so any such fees that is being charged in Korle-Bu is strictly illegal and they must stop with immediate effect,” he said.
Akandoh also urged the facility to focus on providing quality healthcare to Ghanaians and not fixate on making profits.
“The main objective of a public health facility is not profit-making. The main objective of every public health facility in this country is to provide quality healthcare to the people and not profit-making,” he said.
Akandoh added that the Minority Caucus will be compelled to visit the hospital to ascertain the situation if the outrageous charge is not halted by Monday, October 2.
“If they do not stop, we will be there by Monday to have first-hand information and from there, we will have to haul the Minister of Health before the Subsidiary Legislation Committee to come and answer some questions because this is highly unacceptable, it is unconscionable, and we must not entertain it,” he said.
