K'Bu poorer by GH¢1.2 million-Thanks to runaway patients

Front Page: March 4, 2008.
Story: Albert K. Salia
ABOUT 1,518 patients absconded from the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital between 2003 and 2007 without paying their bills, which totalled GH¢1.2 million.
Most of the patients had been referred from other hospitals to the various departments of Korle-Bu especially Allied Surgery, while some of them were patients who claimed they were poor.
The acting Chief Executive of the hospital, Dr Ben Annan, who announced this yesterday, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians to register with the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) so that they would not be required to make out-of-pocket payment at the hospital.
He was speaking at the 2007 Performance Review of the hospital in Accra. The annual performance review is organised every year for the various departments and units of the hospital to take stock of the previous year’s activities, achievements, challenges and ways to address those challenges to help improve patient care.
Dr Annan said the number of NHIS card-bearing members who sought medicare at the hospital was growing, explaining
that while the hospital received a total of 15,030 NHIS patients in 2006, representing five per cent of total attendance, it recorded 64,000 patients, representing 20 per cent of total attendance in 2007.
Dr Annan said besides the problem of absconders, the issue of accommodation remained a thorny one for the hospital.
He said there was also the issue of dwindling resources from the central government, which was impacting negatively on the activities of the hospital.
He said about 400 senior members of staff of the hospital were currently on the waiting list for accommodation at the hospital, resulting in some of them having to stay in Tema, Adenta and Nsawam.
“Equally, it is a struggle for them to get home after a hard day’s work/call. There have been quite a number of near misses on the road and the Motorway,” he lamented.
Dr Annan expressed the hope that most of the SSNIT flats at the hospital would be allocated to the staff to ease the pressure on them.