The President of the International Fellowship of Bishops and Apostles (IFOBA), Archbishop Julius Owusu Ansah, wants the government to consider establishing a support fund for such patients to alleviate the congestion and ensure quality healthcare delivery.

He noted that many patients suffer from “no bed syndrome” because they are detained after completing their treatment but cannot afford to pay their bills.

During the 10th anniversary celebration of IFOBA, the group visited KATH and paid medical bills for four maternity patients.

A senior midwife at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Aba Quainoo highlighted the challenges encountered by the hospital over patients’ inability to foot their bills.

Ms. Quainoo emphasised that patients discharged from the ward frequently struggle to connect with their families due to telephony challenges.

She stated that significant pressure and lack of access to beds in the labour ward have become problematic, causing the hospital to operate at a loss due to the resources they have consumed.

Meanwhile, the hospital’s Social Welfare Fund is actively negotiating effective payment plans with patients to ensure their financial needs are met.

She advises families to prepare and support the sickly relatives financially.

Within the same period, the hospital had to foot the bills of some poor persons treated at the facility because their relatives and family members could not pay their medical bills.

While the hospital lost GH¢103,476 from the absconders, the bill for the poor persons amounted to GH¢3,183.

These incidents were made known at the 2022 annual performance review meeting of the hospital last Monday.

The meeting, which was attended by the senior staff of the hospital and the media, was aimed at discussing the hospital’s progress and challenges, to address inherent challenges to make the facility friendlier to patients.

Addressing the gathering on the hospital’s premises, the Medical Director, Dr Arko Akoto–Ampaw, said the action taken by the absconders, together with the cost of treatment of the poor persons, made the facility lose GH¢106,659.

He also indicated that the hospital lost GH¢64,929 and GH¢18,657 on absconders and poor persons in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Dr Akoto-Ampaw said such a situation had arisen because the hospital was primarily government-owned. He said given that, no patient could be denied healthcare services, irrespective of the patient’s financial situation, adding that many of them found it difficult to pay medical bills and absconded.

He indicated that although such patients were identified later, they were again treated despite not being able to settle their previous medical bills.

“No patient should be denied treatment or allowed to die because he or she cannot pay for services provided at the hospital. So, we will continue to treat them whenever they come to the hospital,” he said.

According to the medical director, malaria, hypertension, pneumonia, respiratory tract infection, tonsillitis, rheumatism/joint pains/musculoskeletal pain, conjunctivitis, urinary tract infection, anaemia and gastroenteritis, were the top 10 causes of attendance at the Out-Patients Department (OPD) of the hospital from 2020 to 2022.

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Causes of death 

He mentioned that cardiovascular/stroke, pneumonia, prematurity, chronic liver cirrhosis, cardiac failure/CCF, HIV/AIDS/Retroviral infections, hypertension, septicaemia/sepsis, kidney disease and hepatic encephalopathy/encephalopathy were also the top 10 causes of deaths at the facility from 2020 to 2022.

According to Dr Akoto-Ampaw, the hospital’s OPD attendance had seen a significant decrease by 5.3 per cent from 283,114 in 2021 to 268,191 in 2022, while insured patients accounted for 86.5 per cent of attendance compared to 74.7 per cent in 2021.

The Medical Director said two-thirds of the total attendance; 65 per cent (181,728), was females while males made up 35 per cent, and an average daily OPD attendance of 931 patients was recorded at the facility.

Admissions, he further stressed, rose by 23.8 per cent (21,809) in 2021 to 26,990 in 2022, while the average length of stay at the facility rose from 5.5 per cent to 6.6 per cent in 2020.

Dr Akoto-Ampaw pointed out that through innovations, maternal deaths reduced from 59 in 2020 to 33 in 2021 and further increased to 46 in 2022, while institutional maternal deaths per 100,000 live births stood at 960 in 2020 and 640 in 2021, and further increased to 868 in 2022.

Achievements 

Touching on the hospital’s achievements, he cited the rehabilitation of the hospital’s CT scan machine, the rehabilitation of the pre-operating theatre room, the painting of the main hospital laboratory, the construction of a diabetic block and the installation of a booster pump behind the physiotherapy block to ensure regular supply of water, among others.

Dr Akoto-Ampaw said his outfit would, this year, undertake projects such as the expansion of the hospital’s mortuary cold room and painting of its external walls, the creation of a new shed at the hospital’s main stores, painting of the hospital’s fence wall and construction of an autopsy unit at the hospital’s mortuary.

Management of Marwako, a fast-food eatery in Accra has paid the medical bills of some customers affected by an alleged food poisoning.

Marwako has been trending after several reported cases of food poisoning after eating at the restaurant over the weekend.

Subsequently, the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) closed down the East Legon and Abelenkpe branches of the restaurant.

The restaurant which has rendered an unqualified apology has since paid the medical bills of affected customers.

Public Relations Officer (PRO) for Marwako, Mohammed Lamptey, on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme said they have so far spent about GH¢70,000 on medical bills.

“We visited some of our customers at the hospital and those who were discharged, we visited them at home. We assisted some of them with their hospital bills. The main thing started on Saturday and Sunday evening. We have accepted everything, and we have apologised to the victims” he said.

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Mr. Lamptey said the number of customers affected are many since many families ordered food and visited the eatery on Mother’s Day.

The shutdown by FDA, he said has gravely affected their operations.

This notwithstanding, Mr. Lamptey assured that the Management will continue to ensure affected customers are treated of their ailments.

He also revealed that, they have began an internal investigations to unravel the mystery behind the alleged food poisoning.

Meanwhile, some victims hospitalised after the incident have been discharged.

Government says it will foot the entire medical bills of victims of the Apiate explosion near Bogoso in the Western Region.

The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, disclosed this on Friday when he led a government delegation to commiserate with residents.

He pledged the government’s commitment to cater for each need to ensure their full recovery and all other affected families.

The unfortunate incident occurred on Thursday afternoon, leaving 13 dead and about 57 injured.

This was after a mining explosive vehicle moving from Tarkwa to Chirano mines collided with a motorcycle resulting in the explosion.

The town has been wiped out with buildings and other structures completely destroyed.

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The Prestea Huni-Valley National Disaster Management Organisation Coordinator, Francis Abeiku Yankah, has said it is a place no human can live again.

Play the audio above:

The mothers could not go home after being delivered of their babies because they could not afford to pay their bills.

Some of them spent more than two months at the maternity ward of the hospital while others spent two weeks.  

One of them was owing the hospital close to GH¢8,000.00.

Yvonne, together with her sisters, Elizabeth Okoro and Roseline Okoro, visited the maternity ward on Wednesday, February 12, to settle the bills so the mothers could finally take their babies home.

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The gesture was part of Yvonne’s yearly charity activity to give back to society which has contributed immensely to her movie career.

In addition to the bills, she also donated some babies’ items worth thousands of Ghana cedis for the upkeep of their babies.

Among the items were Yazz sanitary pad, diapers, baby milk and powder. The rest included Ghandour baby products, hand sanitizers, Faytex, Toothbrushes from Yazz, detergents and hand wash.

Speaking at the ceremony, the actress and producer revealed that she was touched to come to the aid of the women after hearing their story. 

The award-winning actress used the occasion to encouraged young women to plan and make sure they are prepared before bringing babies into the world.

In his address, Mr Mustapha Salifu, Head of Public Relations at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital thanked Yvonne Okoro for her benevolence and encouraged others in society to emulate her kind gesture.