Five days after the Health Ministry directed the immediate reopening of the renal outpatient department of the Korlebu Teaching Hospital, the centre remains closed.
The continuous delay, according to the President of the Renal Patients Association, Kojo Baffuor Ahenkora seems to them a death sentence since most members of the association cannot afford the services of private hospitals and hence are forced to wait for their death.
Speaking on Joy Midday News, he said “If you don’t have money to afford it somewhere, you wait for your fate. So, I was even saying that I would beg the doctors that they should find a way and kill all of us peacefully. Very soon, some of us will not even have money to go for the sections again. What is all this? What is going on?”
Joy News checks at the renal unit at 12:10pm revealed that management of the hospital was working on a plan to have the outpatient department reopened, however, there were some challenges which have resulted in the delay.
Although management did not point out to the News team what the challenges were, they assured that they were working on it.
On the back of this, President of the Renal Patient Association insists that the continuous closure was because the management of the hospital has not been honest with the Health Minister about the GHȼ4 million cedis debt.
He stressed that machines at the renal department consume so much energy hence until the debt is cleared, the unit might close again after a week or two for non-payment.
He appealed to the management of the hospital to be honest about the problem to the health authorities to ensure that the problem was resolved to avoid losing more patients.