Produce dialysis consumables in Ghana – Nsiah Asare to pharmaceutical companies

The President’s Advisor on Health, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, is calling on pharmaceutical companies in the country to venture into the manufacturing of consumables for dialysis.

He believes that such an initiative will reduce the cost of the consumables, which will be reflected in a decrease in the fee for dialysis.

This suggestion comes in the wake of the recent debate surrounding the cost of dialysis treatment, particularly after Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital attempted to implement a 100% price increase for dialysis treatment.

In an interview with Citi News, Dr. Nsiah Asare entreated pharmaceutical companies to consider producing consumables for dialysis.

“Most of the things that we need for haemodialysis are imported and are disposable, meaning that when you use one, you have to throw it away. Can we now talk to our pharmaceutical companies to start producing these things? I have heard them say that we can and should be able to do it in Ghana so that they can also produce it in years to come so that foreign exchange will not affect it. What has caused the cost to increase from GH¢380 to GH¢765.42 at Korle-Bu is the foreign exchange. If you look at it in dollar terms, it doesn’t change much, but because of the dollar-to-cedi exchange rate, it also changed,” the President’s Advisor on Health said.

Ghanaians, particularly patients on dialysis treatment, lamented when the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital’s Renal Dialysis Unit announced an increase from GH¢380 to GHS¢765.42 per dialysis session on Wednesday, September 27.

The Minority Caucus in Parliament described the increase as illegal and outrageous and called on the Hospital to immediately reverse the increase.

But speaking to Citi News, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, a former Cardiothoracic surgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, highlighted the financial burden that hospitals like Korle Bu face in procuring and maintaining advanced medical equipment required for treatments like dialysis.