Persons with renal disease to picket ‘Korle Bu’ centre over closure of facility
Renal disease patients at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital have served notice to picket at the Renal Center on Wednesday, August 21 following the government’s inability to provide consumables for dialysis sessions for the past three weeks.
It’s been 3 weeks since the closure of the unit to outpatients due to shortage of consumables.
More than 300 renal disease patients dialyze at the facility and the constant closure of the place is making life unbearable for them as some risk further complications due to their inability to sustain their dialysis sessions at private renal centers.
The centre was expected to have been opened to the patients on August 14 following a communique by the hospital’s Management, but the situation remains same when the news team visited the place earlier today.
Information gathered indicates that the consumables are at the port, but clearance processes from the Finance Ministry and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) is what is delaying the release of the containers from the ports.
President of the Renal Disease Patient’s Association, Kojo Ahenkorah, who expressed disappointment in the development, said the system has failed them hence their decision.
‘‘Come Wednesday, we will come here with our mattresses to sleep here, so that when we die they will just put us in the morgue. Look our lives matter. It’s not like the consumables are not there. They are here at the ports. What is happening?
“We are calling on the Health Minister, the Finance Minister and the GRA boss. Please do the needful and clear the containers for the consumables. I see some of my colleagues and you can tell death is staring at them. Their lives are miserable. They can’t afford the private dialysis. So, we will picket here come Wednesday,” he lamented.
