Founder and Executive Chairman of First Sky Group, Eric Seddy Kutortse has made a passionate appeal to government to consider making at least two sessions of dialysis treatment cost, a part of the medical services covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme. 

In 2017, the First Sky Group supported the Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra by paying off all the medical bills of all patients at the facility and instituted free dialysis for patients who frequent the unit.

Making the appeal at the 19^th Annual Thanksgiving Service of the Group in Accra, Mr. Kutortse recalled that over the past three years, First Sky Group has in collaboration with a team of kidney specialists and transplant surgeons from Transplant Links UK based in Birmingham, sponsored free kidney transplant in Ghana for four patients with kidney failures.

According to Mr. Kutortse, the appeal has become necessary due to the numerous requests for financial support, First Sky Group has been receiving from other health facilities in the country since it adopted the Renal Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital four years ago.

"But for our intervention, it is fair to say, that many beneficiaries would have either lost their lives or would have been incapacitated by challenges with their kidney dysfunction. Since the inception of the programme to date, the First Sky Group has spent Twenty Million Ghana Cedis (GH¢20,000,000.00) on the Free Dialysis Project," Mr. Kutortse noted.

The Chief Executive Officer further promised that, "First Sky Group’s long term contribution to addressing the challenges associated with the treatment of kidney dysfunction in the country is to sponsor the establishment and operationalisation of a modern Kidney Transplant Centre in Ghana."

"It will also be the first of its kind in West Africa and will serve patients within the country and the sub-region who otherwise would have been flown to India, South Africa or elsewhere for medical attention."

According to him, this appeal is achievable because partial coverage of dialysis treatment cost is being practiced in other counties including Kenya and South Africa and he was therefore hopeful that when done, it should go a long way to improve the quality of life of patients, majority of whom are young and form the economically productive group of the Ghanaian society and who can potentially be integrated back into society with adequate treatment.

Oh his part, President Akufo-Addo in a speech read on his behalf by the Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Cecilia Dapaah, praised the First Sky Group for its contribution to national development; assuring that Ghanaian companies which are doing well would be assisted to continue to capture the commanding heights of the economy.

The Founder and General Overseer of the Christina Action Faith Ministries International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams also used his sermon to admonish congregants to develop a lifestyle of gratitude and appreciation to God for His unending mercy towards humanity.

The Thanksgiving Service which was held at the Accra International Conference Centre was attended by senior members of the Clergy, Ministers of States, Members of Parliament, staff of First Sky Group, partners, stakeholders and the media.