Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, expressed worry over the steep expenses faced by renal patients in Ghana. He proposed that the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) should alleviate some of the financial burden on kidney patients undergoing dialysis.

In an interview on Eyewitness News, Nkrumah emphasized the necessity for the government to support certain facets of this costly treatment, which is straining the finances of individuals with kidney ailments. Consequently, he highlighted the significance of adequately funding the NHIS Fund.

“The government is waiting on the management of Korle Bu to complete its internal work and come forward with what its position is. The conversation has been going on, and I personally suggested that whatever the amount comes to, it is a matter that the NHIS Fund should be able to pick up. To achieve that, we need to take a lot more seriously the financing of the NHIS Fund to take up incidents like this. The amount is not something an individual will be able to cater for considering the number of dialyses one has to go through in a month, without draining their finances extensively.”

The MP representing Ofoase-Ayiribi expressed concern over the absence of contributions to the NHIS Fund since its inception during the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufuor.

Additionally, he recommended automating the collection of funds on behalf of the NHIS Fund to prevent potential loopholes and enhance its efficiency.

“Today, the non-Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributor is paying GHC28 as an annual premium, and the SSNIT contributor is paying GHC8, as an annual premium, this is woefully inadequate. The NHIS levy that is collected on behalf of the NHIS Fund is not automatically remitted to the NHIS Fund. I believe that is something we also have a look at. We have never remitted 100% to the Fund since its introduction by former President Kufuor. I don’t think it’s honestly proper for us to collect monies in the name of the Fund and not remit those monies to the Fund. And it’s something both the National Democratic Congress and New Patriotic Party have been doing since the days of former President Kufuor. We need to bring some automaticity to the amount of monies we collect on behalf of the Fund. If you do it this way, we can have money from the Fund that can take care of these costs,” he opined.

The Renal Patients Association has reported that 14 outpatients of the renal unit at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital passed away after the unit was closed to them in May 2023.

According to the Association's spokesperson, Michael Asante, these deaths resulted from the patients' inability to access dialysis treatment at private dialysis centers, which are more expensive than the hospital's services.

Patients suffering from kidney failure, who regularly visited the Renal Unit at the hospital for dialysis sessions, were faced with a new fee of GH¢765, a significant increase from the initial fee of GH¢385.

In response to public outcry, the Ministry of Health summoned the management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital to explain the introduction of the new fee without following the due process.

The hospital has faced strong criticism following reports of the revision of its dialysis charges, raising concerns about the accessibility of essential healthcare services for kidney patients.