You should consider yourself fortunate to have been allotted a bed while undergoing treatment at the Daboya Health Centre in the Savannah Region.

This is due to the health facility’s serious bed deficit. Due to a lack of beds, healthcare providers have been forced to discharge in-patients on an hourly basis.

While some admitted patients wait their turn on benches, others are forced to undergo treatment in plastic chairs.

Hospital beds serve a vital part in healthcare by allowing patients to be as comfortable as possible.

However, its absence has a negative influence on patients’ health.

This has been a serious source of concern for in-patients at the Daboya and Mankarigu health centres.

A patient admitted to the Daboya Health Centre will be fortunate to be given a bed to lie on.

Nurses must release patients every hour to make room for those who are waiting on benches.

others with serious ailments take over the beds, while others with lesser diseases are forced to sit on plastic chairs.

Kwame Ebenezer, a nurse practitioner at the Daboya Health Centre, laments the dismal condition.

“One of our main challenges is the bedding situation because you have cases you have to detain and take care of and the question is where does the patient lie?

“We have to resort to a situation whereby someone will lie for two hours when you stabilize the situation then you discharge so is more like a shifting thing”

Issahaku Ramatu, a Daboya resident, was forced to take her infusion in a plastic chair since she couldn’t find a bed to rest on.

“I was told the beds were full and needed to wait for some time for them to discharge someone and I couldn’t wait so I opted to sit in this plastic chair. How can you be well in this situation?”

Emmanuel Osei has been employed at the Daboya Health Institution for three years.

He believes that the mattress scenario is harmful to healthcare delivery.

Even at the Mankarigu Health Centre, the situation appears to be bad.

Some patients are treated under trees here.

The health clinics in Daboya and Mankargu all function as referral centres for the North Gonja District.

With more than 15 patients admitted to each facility on a daily basis, the availability of beds for patient usage remains an issue.

The scenario is frustrating for patients, families, and locals.

“Our MP is a deputy minister of health and we don’t know his seriousness level on this issue.”

In a phone chat, Alhaji Asei Seini, MP for the area and Deputy Minister of Health described the situation as regrettable but pledged that beds would be sent to the hospital within a few weeks.

“I distributed some beds a few days ago and still have more at the central medical store in Accra but I think the challenge is the space to keep them. I will dispatch the other beds within a week to address the entire bedding situation.

“We are facing this challenge be sit here is no hospital but with the springing up of the agenda 111 Hospital, we shall soon overcome these challenges.”

By 2030, Sustainable Development Goal 3 aims to achieve universal health coverage, which includes access to quality essential healthcare services as well as safe, effective, high-quality, and affordable necessary medications and vaccinations.

However, challenges such as no-bed syndrome would jeopardise the country’s health benefits and may widen the gap towards meeting the quality health target.

Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, Ranking Member of Parliament’s Health Committee, has called the increase in the price of kidney dialysis treatment at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital as unlawful.

He claims that the hospital cannot modify its fees or charges without first contacting Parliament, as required by law.

His remark comes in the wake of a recent increase in the cost of renal dialysis therapy at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital from 380 to 765.

Mustapha Salifu, KBTH’s Public Relations Officer, noted that the increase is due to high taxes and import levies on consumables.

According to Mr Salifu, the government has abolished the tax exemption on these consumables, necessitating the need to raise the price to pay the expense of the service.

If the hospital reverts to its previous pricing, he believes the dialysis clinic would have to close within days.

The cost hike might be duplicated in other regional hospitals around the country in the near future.

However, Mintah Akandoh of JoyFM Midday News stated that the hospital’s fees and charges are governed by the Fees and Charges Act and that any price increase must be approved by parliament.

However, it is an expensive procedure that many Ghanaians cannot afford.

“To start with it is illegal because every public health facility, their fees and charges must be regulated by what we call Fees and Charges Act. So your fees and charges must be approved by parliament. You just can’t sit at the hospital and fix fees or charges anyhow,” he said.

According to him, no such problem has been brought before the Health Committee, hence the price increase is unlawful.

“And I am not aware from where I sit as a Ranking Member on Parliament’s Health Committee, I am not aware and I don’t know and we have not done such a thing, we have not approved that 765 they want to charge.

“So please, in as much as I agree that there’s high inflation, in as much as I agree there’s economic hardship going on, I think that citizens must not pay for the recklessness of government,” he said.

He has previously urged the government to reinstate the tax exemption on consumables in order to cut the cost of medical care.

 “We are calling on government to, as a matter of urgency, restore the tax exemptions on these items that have necessitated the astronomical increase in the cost of dialysis.

“It is quite unconscionable, highly unacceptable, we are talking about health care, we are talking about dialysis, something that you need not less than two or three times within a week, and you’re moving the price from 380 ghana cedis to 765.

“The government is so insensitive to the extent that now we’re pushing people into the grave. How can we do this? How?”

According to the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), the higher cost of renal dialysis from GH380 to GH765.42 has yet to be considered and approved.

Reports of the increase have sparked public outrage, with many concerned about the treatment’s price.

The renal dialysis unit, according to the management, suggested the price increase.

The Ministry of Health has yet to submit it to Parliament for approval.

“It is only after the due parliamentary approval that any revised fee will be implemented,” the statement noted.

Meanwhile, the hospital administration has stated that it recognises the difficulties that renal dialysis patients face.

As a result, it has vowed to continue working with stakeholders and benefactors to assist in supporting dialysis reagents and services, as it has done in the past.

Korle-Bu also praised First Sky Group, which has offered free dialysis treatment to over 200 patients each year for the past eight years.

According to the hospital, this gesture has enhanced the survival rate and quality of life of renal patients.

Dialysis is a life-saving therapy for renal-failing patients. When the kidneys are unable to eliminate waste materials and extra fluid from the blood, it does so.

However, it is an expensive procedure that many Ghanaians cannot afford.

Below is the full statement: