Korle Bu Renal Dialysis Unit still closed despite Health Minister’s reopening directive
The Ministry of Health ordered the Korle Bu Renal Dialysis Unit to open immediately, however it is still closed to outpatients.
According to hospital insiders, a few procedures would need to be completed before the hospital could reopen.
Based on information obtained by JoyNews during a visit to the hospital, officials have not received any communiqué on the reopening.
In order for the deployment to be effective, discussions should also have taken place, but they haven’t.
The Ministry of Health’s public relations officer, Isaac Offei Baah, announced the reopening of the Dialysis Unit to patients from the Outpatient Department on Joy FM on Thursday.
He claims that the unit was opened behind the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s directive which is expected to take effect immediately.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Midday News on November 2, the PRO said “The Honorable Minister has directed the Chief Executive of Korle Bu to as a matter of urgency make the place opened and issue a statement for Ghanaians to know that the place is opened.”
Due to an unpaid debt of GH₵4 million cedis and a delay in the supply of some supplies, the dialysis unit was shut down in May 2023.
About 19 fatalities have been reported since the institution closed as a result of patients’ inability to get the more costly dialysis therapy at private centers than what was provided at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The Renal Patients Association claims this.
The dialysis unit appears to be closed in spite of the purported ministerial decision, nevertheless.
In a similar incident, Mohammed Amin Adam, the Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, has expressed regret over the circumstances that dialysis patients face.
He assures that the government would find a solution before next week, saying that the suffering that renal failure patients in Ghana are going through is intolerable.
In the meanwhile, the nation’s growing number of kidney-related illnesses has prompted Speaker of the House Alban Bagbin to call the Health Minister to update the House on the closing of the Renal Dialysis Unit to outpatients.