Dialysis expert Grace Ayensu-Danquah has urged the National Health Insurance Authority to ensure that the procedure is covered under the health insurance scheme as part of health financing so as to provide relief to kidney patients, some of whom have to have as many as three sessions a week in order to survive.

Speaking to Accra News' Kaakyire Badu on Wednesday, 27 September 2023, about the recent announcement by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital that the cost of dialysis has been increased from GHS380 to GHS765, Dr Ayensu-Danquah, who runs Sage Medical Centre, a private specialist hospital that provides dialysis services at East Legon, Accra, said, without the procedure being covered by the NHIS, patients and their families would continue to be burdened.

She explained that the GHS380 currently charged by Korle Bu per session is just half of the actual price because an NGO picks half of the bill for patients.

Another reason for the high cost of dialysis, she added, is the cost of the equipment and consumables, which, she indicated, are not produced here in Afica and, thus, have to be imported at the prevailing cedi-dollar rate.

"The problem is that the machines are expensive. The consumables are also not produced in Ghana and Africa. They are imported from outside. That's why dialysis is so expensive," she emphasised.

"The other issue is that the NHIS does not cover dialysis. NHIS CEO Dr Okoe-Boye and his administration must ensure that dialysis patients are covered, with, perhaps, a fractional co-pay by the patients because that is the only way," she proposed.