The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital’s Renal Centre is expecting to clear its four million cedis debt soon with the help of the government, according to the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah.
He said that the debt was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which affected the timely payment of the centre’s main sponsor, First Sky Group. The group covers about 80% of the cost of renal dialysis for patients at Korle-Bu.
He added that the cedis lost its value against foreign currencies during the pandemic, which increased the gap between the amount paid by the group and the actual cost of the renal supplies.
He clarified that the rapid depreciation of the cedi following the pandemic exacerbated the situation, resulting in a deficit of over four million cedis, even though the First Sky Group eventually settled the arrears.
Explaining in a media engagement, he said,this is a historical debt. Before we got to this point, the supplier had started withholding supplies of the renal consumables because of this outstanding debt. Now, how did we get this debt?
“This debt had arisen during the COVID period because of the financial crunch. of course, our main benefactor had some challenges in meeting the payments, although he did his best, and we really acknowledge that. We cannot blame him for that; this was something that was beyond him.
“So because of that delay in payment, the commitment has been made in cedis. So due to the fluctuation in the exchange rate, although that amount was paid, in terms of its value, in terms of the foreign exchange component, the value has significantly dropped so this meant that we still had a significant debt to settle in that regard.
“And so that is how come this 4million debt has accumulated which has resulted in the unfolding of some of these critical supplies. So this 4 million will help us settle the old debt which would enable these extra machines and equipment to be released to us to improve the service,”
He further stated that the hospital is currently in discussions with the presidency to expedite the settlement of the debt, facilitating the release of additional machines and equipment for the centre.
“We are hoping that this will be done within the next few weeks. In fact it can be done earlier but we’re still engaged in discussion. We have been asked to do some work and come back and so once we go back I will keep the people of Ghana updated as to the situation,” he said.
Nevertheless, considering the current circumstances, he pointed out that if the previous charges were upheld, the hospital would require a monthly subsidy of 961,000 cedis to ensure its smooth operation and the delivery of quality services.
“But then going forward, in terms of recovery of cost if we are to maintain- because of the number of sessions we do, we actually run about 2000 dialysis sessions every month. So looking at the current charges we’ll be running a deficit of 961,000 cedis every month if we’re to continue with the current prices,” he said.