The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has resumed dialysis services for inpatients after a two-week closure due to delays in clearing essential consumables needed for dialysis at the Tema port.
hospital is expecting to take delivery of the consumables by the end of the day to allow for full operations for outpatients starting from today.
“It’s never the intention of anybody in Korle Bu to find ourselves in this kind of situation. When it happens, it’s always issues that are beyond our control,” said Mustapha Salifu, Public Relations Officer for the hospital.
Salifu assured that the staff of the renal unit have put in place mechanisms to address backlogs as a result of the two-week closure. “The 30 additional dialysis machines and consumables provided by the Minister for Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, will help prevent future shortages,” he added.
The hospital has a plan to distribute the additional machines to various areas, including the new urology and nephrology center of excellence, to prevent overcrowding and ensure timely treatment for patients.
“In terms of backlog, the team will schedule every patient and take them in, so nobody will lose out. We always make sure that we fairly, through a transparent process, schedule patients so that everybody will have their dialysis back,” Salifu explained.
The resumption of services is good news for renal patients, who are happy but also want improved collaboration between agencies to avert a future recurrence. As Mr. Baffour Kojo Ahenkorah, president of the Renal Patients Association, put it, “End-stage kidney renal failure, you can never hold on for a week. It’s not advisable. We need to ensure that services are always available to save lives.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Sena Afi Senanu
