By Muyid Deen Suleman
Kumasi, Sept. 29, GNA – High cost of dialysis treatment has been blamed for the high rate of deaths among kidney patients at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
One out of three patients who seek medical attention associated with kidney die as a result of the inability to pay for continuous dialysis treatment due to the high cost involved.
Dr Elliot Koranteng Tannor, a Nephrologist at KATH, who made this known lamented over the high fatality rate among kidney patients who sought treatment at the facility as a result of their inability to afford dialysis treatment.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Kumasi, he said, “it is alarming the rate at which patients who are battling kidney problems end up dying prematurely.”
A Nephrologist is a medical doctor who has specialized in diagnosing and treating kidney conditions.
Dr Tannor described the sudden increase in kidney failure cases and its accompanying death rates in the country as worrying and stressed the need for an urgent government intervention to make the cost of treatment very affordable.
He said normally, patients under dialysis were supposed to be attended to three times a week until transplant was done.
However, most patients are unable to afford it due to the cost of dialysis.
For this reason, he noted, some patients do dialysis twice and others once a week instead of the three times a week target.
Earlier on the week the management of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra was said to have indicated intention to increase the cost of dialysis per session from the current GHC380 to GHC765, subject to parliamentary approval, due to high taxes on consumables.
Dr. Tannor feared if the increases were approved some patients would not be able to afford dialysis and this may lead to early deaths.
He stressed that already, the majority of patients were unable to afford the existing cost and, therefore, increasing it would be disastrous to patients and families.
“It is really sad to gape at people die on dialysis on daily basis,” he said sadly.
GNA