Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah says government has disbursed money meant to settle the hospital’s GH¢4 million debt.

Dr. Ampomah revealed that the funds were released in November last year.

This was after the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu said in Parliament last year that "The MoH has since requested the Finance Ministry to settle the total indebtedness to the GH¢4 million and the good news is that the Minister for Finance has just approved the disbursement of GH¢4 million to support our patients in Korle Bu."

He was reacting to claims made by Pharmacist Kwame Sarpong Asiedu that he had found out the hospital was yet to settle its debt.

He had called on Parliament to haul the Health Minister before the house to answer questions on why the money meant for the debt settlement had not been disbursed.

Replying to the pharmacist, Dr. Ampomah stated that while he agrees the dialysis issue was one of major national concern it was harmful to put out erroneous information.

“The discussion does not help if we put out erroneous information that seems to be the impression that some people are reneging on their responsibility or are callous [inaudible] this does not help the discussion. This money was released last year. The money has been credited to us,” the CEO said.

He, however, clarified that while the money has been disbursed the hospital is yet to settle the debt.

He explained that the hospital is at the moment trying to negotiate with its creditors concerning the payment and the next supply of consumables.

“That’s what we’re working on now. We’re working on firm guarantees to get our outstanding equipment and consumables shipped to the unit,” he explained.

“While we were having the discussion we talked about some of the contractual issues and we felt that looking at the contract and what has transpired so far, we also think that we can get better terms and we’re also looking at other options because this is a closed system, so we’re looking at other options to also bring down the cost of dialysis even further. So that is what is being explored at the moment but the unit is running,” he added.

Background

The Korle Bu Renal Unit shut down for about four months last year putting the lives of renal patients at risk.

This was due to an accumulated debt of ₵4 million following the removal of tax and excise duty exemptions on medical consumables.

The hospital had attempted to hike the cost of dialysis treatment to cover the expense but this was met with public protest.

Following public uproar, the government had promised to settle the Unit’s debt and see to the full opening of the Renal Unit.

They had also promised to put kidney dialysis treatment on the NHIS.