Founder and Executive Chairman of First Sky Group, Eric Seddy Kutortse has made a passionate appeal to government to consider making at least two sessions of dialysis treatment cost, a part of the medical services covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme.
In 2017, the First Sky Group decided to support the Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra by paying off all the medical bills of all patients at the facility and instituted free dialysis for patients who frequent the Unit.
Making the appeal at the 19th Annual Thanksgiving service of the Group in Accra, Mr. Kutortse recalled that over the past three years First Sky Group has in collaboration with a team of kidney specialists and transplant surgeons from Transplant Links UK based in Birmingham, sponsored free kidney transplantation in Ghana for four patients with kidney failures.
According to Mr. Kutortse, the appeal has become necessary due to the numerous requests for financial support, First Sky Group has been receiving from other health facilities in the country since it adopted the Renal Dialysis Unit of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital four years ago.
‘But for our intervention, it is fair to say, that many beneficiaries would have either lost their lives or would have been incapacitated by challenges with their kidney dysfunction. Since the inception of the programme to date, the First Sky Group has spent GH¢20 million on the Free Dialysis Project.’ Mr. Kutortse noted.
“First Sky Group’s long term contribution to addressing the challenges associated with the treatment of kidney dysfunction in the country is to sponsor the establishment and operationalisation of a modern Kidney Transplant Centre in Ghana, the first of its kind in West Africa, to serve patients within the country and the sub-region who otherwise would have been flown to India, South Africa or elsewhere for medical attention,” the First Sky Group Boss promised.
He implored that this appeal was achievable because partial coverage of dialysis treatment cost is being practiced in other countries including Kenya and South Africa and hoped that when done, it should go a long way to improve the quality of life of patients, majority of whom are young and form the economically productive group of the Ghanaian society and who can potentially be integrated back into society with adequate treatment.
The Minister for Sanitation and Water Resources, Hon, Cecilia Dapaah who represented the President His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo – Addo praised the First Sky Group for its contribution to national development assuring that Ghanaian companies which are doing well would be assisted to continue to capture the commanding heights of our economy.
Preaching the sermon, Founder and General Overseer of the Christina Action Faith Ministries International, Archbishop Nicholas Duncan Williams admonished congregants to develop a lifestyle of gratitude and appreciation to God for his unending mercy and towards humanity.
In attendance were the Vice President of Liberia, Her Excellency Dr. Jewel Howard Taylor, Senior members of the Clergy, Ministers of State, Members of Parliament, Staff of First Sky Group, Partners, Stakeholders and Media.
