The presidential adviser on health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare says the recent increase in the cost of renal dialysis at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is due to foreign exchange fluctuations.
He explained that the largest contributory factor is the foreign exchange regime in recent months and not because of only import charges.
The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s Renal Dialysis Unit in September announced an increase from GH¢380 to GHS¢765.42 per dialysis session.
The decision was however met with criticism from the public.
In a radio interview on Accra-based Citi on Friday, Dr Nsiah Asare said dialysis is generally expensive irrespective of the location where the treatment is being given.
He explained that most of the dialysis consumables are disposal materials which also explains the increase and admonished hospitals to make use of the tax exemption regime to avoid paying import duties.
“Dialysis is generally expensive irrespective of wherever you are coming from and most of the things we use in dialysis are used once and disposed and almost all the things we use in dialysis are imported into the country and the problem is because of the foreign exchange regime and what has happened over the period of time is the foreign exchange.”
“What we need to do holistically is to look at the causes of renal cases that we have, the burden, the treatment methods available, the preventive measures to put in place and we need to look at these things holistically,” Dr. Nsiah-Asare added.
