Hemophilia patients at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) are growing increasingly frustrated over a reported shortage of essential medication.
According to the Ghana Hemophilia Society, this shortage stems from delays in the processing of import permits by the Food and Drugs Authority for donated drugs.
As a consequence, prophylactic treatments have been halted, and hospital supplies are dwindling, leaving patients requiring surgery or urgent care in a precarious situation.
Concerned parents of young patients have voiced their anxieties about the impact of the shortage.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Medical Director of KATH, Dr. Yaw Opare Larbi, explained that while the hospital has sufficient medication for treatment, the low supply is hindering the administration of prophylactic care.
To manage the situation, the hospital is rationing its available medication, prioritizing patients with active bleeding while temporarily suspending prophylactic doses.
“The current situation is that the factors are in low supply. We have enough for treatment, but we are not doing prophylaxis. So what the parents are used to is two things: both prophylaxis and treatment. And now we are not giving the prophylactic doses because we want the stock to be enough for people who come in needing treatment for active bleeding.”
“We haven’t run out of stock, but we are managing the stock so that it will last long enough for the newly imported medication to arrive, allowing us to resume the prophylactic arm of their management,” he told Citi News.
Source: Adomonline
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