For neurosurgeon Dr. Hadi Mohammed Abdallah, the impact of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund (GMTF) is being felt far beyond the operating theatre.
One year into the Fund’s existence, Dr. Abdallah says its intervention in the treatment of patients with complex neurological conditions has not only saved lives and restored quality of life, but has also brought something many doctors had quietly been losing: hope.
As a neurosurgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Abdallah has been involved in the treatment of more than 10 patients supported by the Fund.
Among the most significant cases, he said, were six patients who underwent brain aneurysm surgery with GMTF support, marking, according to him, the first time six such cases had been sponsored and carried out in a public hospital.
A brain aneurysm, he explained, can be like a ticking time bomb. Before the Fund’s intervention, treatment was available in Ghana, but the cost of coiling could range between US$15,000 and US$20,000, placing it beyond the reach of many patients.
For those unable to raise the money, the diagnosis came with a devastating psychological burden.
“They were living with the mental torture that they were a walking time bomb,” Dr. Abdallah said, describing the fear that another blood vessel could rupture in the brain at any time.
GMTF changed that reality for the patients.
In one emergency case, he said, the Fund stepped in and settled the patient’s treatment costs without the lengthy processes that could delay care.
For Dr. Abdallah, that intervention was more than financial assistance.
“We saved this patient.”
The Fund has also supported patients with brain tumours, including pituitary tumours that can progressively destroy a patient’s vision and, if untreated, become fatal.
Dr. Abdallah said that without financial support, some patients would have waited months or even years while trying to raise money for surgery. By then, some could lose their sight, while others risked dying as their tumours grew.
GMTF’s intervention, he said, has therefore meant more than paying hospital bills.
It has meant giving patients back their sight, their lives and, in some cases, what feels like a second chance at life.
But perhaps the most profound impact, according to Dr. Abdallah, is one that is rarely discussed; the effect on the mental health of healthcare professionals.
Doctors, he explained, are often confronted with the painful reality of diagnosing a patient early, knowing that timely treatment could make a difference, only to watch that patient return much later in a worse condition because the family could not afford the surgery.
“That can be depressing,” he said.
Sometimes, when families exhaust their resources, doctors and other hospital staff step in. They contribute from their own pockets and organise collections among colleagues simply to keep a patient alive.
But the emotional toll does not end in the hospital.
Dr. Abdallah described the pain of going home and reflecting on patients who might have had better outcomes if they had received treatment earlier.
When such situations occur repeatedly, he said, the psychological burden begins to affect doctors themselves.
That is why the emergence of GMTF represents a different kind of relief.
“The fact that I don’t have to dip my hands into my pocket to do round collection to save a patient, I think it is great,” he said.
For Dr. Abdallah, the Fund is therefore also restoring confidence among healthcare workers that patients can receive the treatment they need without doctors having to personally carry the financial burden.
It gives clinicians the reassurance that their country has their backs.
“It gives us a lot of hope,” he said, expressing optimism that as the Fund grows, more complex surgeries can be performed and outcomes can increasingly match those seen in developed healthcare systems.
For the patients supported by GMTF, it may be the beginning of life again.
For the doctors caring for them, it is something equally profound:
the restoration of hope, relief from an invisible burden, and the reassurance that they do not have to fight alone to save a life.
And in the words of Dr. Abdallah:
“Our mental health is restored, courtesy of the Ghana Medical Trust Fund.”
