On Thursday, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia made a suggestion that, due to the high expense of treatment, the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) could be willing to offer financial assistance to kids with kidney illness.
The Vice President was of the opinion that Ghanaians should be willing to pay a little bit more to the Scheme in order to sustain it and function well, even if he did not give a date for when the NHIS would begin assisting kids with kidney illness.
He said that the government would assist investors who were prepared to produce intravenous infusion and other essential materials for kidney therapy locally.
At a public symposium held by the Ghana Kidney Association and the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra to commemorate 50 years of dialysis in Ghana, Vice President Bawumia made this announcement.
According to recent figures, 14 percent of Ghana’s population of over 30 million people suffer from chronic renal disease. A kidney patient must spend between GHS 400 and GHS 595 for three weekly dialysis treatments.
For dialysis services, an individual should expect to pay approximately GHS4,800 per month and more than GHS 50,000 annually.
The symposium’s goal was to reflect on the past, present, and future of kidney therapy in Ghana and to map out a course for ensuring that all Ghanaians, regardless of their financial situation, could access it. Its theme was “50 Years of Dialysis in Ghana, the Past, Present, and Future.”
There are currently 103 dialysis machines and 15 dialysis centers across the nation, along with 14 nephrologists.
Five million patients are typically seen by a nephrologist each year.
Vice President Bawumia emphasized the need for all Ghanaians to address the underlying causes of acute kidney failures and noted that the contamination of water sources with mercury and other hazardous chemicals by illegal miners may be a significant contributing factor to the rising number of cases of the disease.
He gave the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) the responsibility of monitoring the unauthorized distribution of herbal medications that claim to treat kidney disease but really make many patients’ health issues worse.
In order to provide better healthcare for renal patients in the nation, Dr. Bawumia believed that public-private partnerships were essential.
In his opening remarks, Professor Sampson Antwi, President of the Ghana Kidney Association, recalled the dark times when the failure of a vital organ like the kidney really resulted in a person’s demise.
However, he noted that over the previous 50 years, medical research had made significant strides, with the introduction of dialysis centers in Ghana keeping patients with chronic renal disease alive.
“It is no little accomplishment for Ghana to have been one of the first countries in Africa to build dialysis facilities half a century ago on the African continent,” he said.
He stated, “As we as a nation celebrate this accomplishment, we are conscious of the tremendous financial constraints faced by clients in maintaining themselves on dialysis.
“As we reflect on dialysis services for the past 50 years, the present and the future, we hope that the narrative will change from an out-of-pocket funding of dialysis to a fully funded chronic dialysis programme as pertains elsewhere,” he stated.
Prof. Antwi said, for instance, at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi a minimum of 15 children are diagnosed of Kidney failure every year and a maximum of 40 per year, noting that most of them either die at the health facility or at home because of the lack of funds to sustain dialysis therapy.
He, therefore, called on corporate Ghana, philanthropists and all well-meaning Ghanaians to join the Ghana Kidney Association in highlighting the need for funding support for dialysis in the country.
He was optimistic that the ultimate choice of renal replacement therapy-kidney transplant would become a well-established therapeutic service in the country in the not-too-distant future.