The Minority Caucus in Parliament has described the decision of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital to have its Renal Unit closed since May 2023 as “unconscionable and sheer wickedness.”
The Minority’s spokesperson on health and MP for Juaboso, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, said the move is insensitive and indicative of the incompetence of the people manning the country’s health sector.
Speaking to Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Mr. Akandoh said the Health Minister reneged on his assurance to reopen the unit when the Minority paid a courtesy call on him and that the Caucus will not relent until the unit is reopened to the public.
“It is unconscionable and sheer wickedness for any government in the world to close a sensitive unit like the renal unit in a health facility for more than four to five months to OPD and you would agree with me how this thing started. It started with an increase in the cost of dialysis, and we came in to tell them [Korle-Bu] that irrespective of the prevailing circumstances, you cannot sit in your office and increase prices, it must be subjected to the Fees and Charges Act of the country. So we went to Korle-Bu to meet the management, and we all agreed it was not the right thing to do so we then went to the Minister of Health and said whatever it takes to reopen the renal unit, we must do, and the Minister assured us that the unit will be reopened as soon as possible, and it is yet to reopen after one week.”
“If as a country, we do not have the resources to take care of less than 300 renal patients at Korle-Bu, then we have no business in government. That a government cannot look for resources to take care of renal patients is sheer wickedness. We must find money to reopen the unit and until the unit is reopened, we will not rest.”
Korle-Bu was chastised when it increased its renal dialysis from GHS¢380 to GHS¢765.42 prompting public disapproval of the increase.
Affected patients following the increase disclosed that the Renal Unit at the facility had been closed since May 2023.
