The Minority Caucus in Parliament has called the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s decision to close its Renal Unit in May 2023 “unconscionable and sheer wickedness.”
Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Minority Health Spokesperson and Juaboso MP, described the move as insensitive and symptomatic of the incompetence of those in charge of the country’s health service.
Mr. Akandoh told Richard Dela Sky on Eyewitness News on Citi FM that the Health Minister broke his promise to reopen the facility after the Minority paid him a courtesy call, and that the Caucus will not yield 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 hiked its renal dialysis from GHS380 to GHS765.42, causing public outrage.
Following the increase, affected patients revealed that the facility’s Renal Unit had been shuttered since May 2023.
