Dialysis patients in Ghana are facing a dire predicament as they are forced to forgo life-saving treatments due to a significant increase in costs.
The surge in price, from GHC380 to GHC491, has made the treatment financially out of reach for numerous patients, pushing them into dire circumstances.
Dialysis is a life-saving treatment for people with kidney failure. It removes waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys are unable to do so.
However, it is a costly treatment, and many people in Ghana cannot afford it.
Some people who rely on dialysis treatment at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have expressed their concern about the price increase.
“I skipped my session as a result of the price increase. I can’t eat although I am hungry, and it is affecting me a lot because I don’t want to be too heavy,” Mintah disclosed, as quoted by the news portal.
Another person said, “Now you are even afraid to drink water or eat because you don’t know where you are going to get money for the dialysis.”
President of the Dialysis Patients Association, Kojo Bafour Ahenkora, lamented that the increment could have been postponed until efforts to include dialysis treatment costs under the National Health Insurance Scheme were finalized. He urged authorities to reconsider the decision, stating, “If it’s Parliament who did this, we beg them to revisit the issues and do something about it.”
