Halt 'illegal fees' at hospitals - CPA to MoH

The Consumer Protection Agency (CPA) has given the Ministry of Health a 21-day deadline to scrap what it has described as “illegal fees” being charged by some public health facilities.

CPA Chief Executive Officer Kofi Kapito explained that the situation was worrying as major public hospitals were also culpable.

“I am giving the Minister of Health 21 days… if this practice is not stopped, they will see me in court because nobody is allowed to do an illegal act,” he said, when he briefed journalists in Accra.

According to him, “You go to a hospital and you are asked to pay. The excuse is because they need to maintain. For crying out loud, if they need to maintain it, do you know where they should start to look? Get that Land Cruiser from the Chief Executive, and sell … [it]. Nobody in their right mind should even think they have the power to levy without being approved by Parliament.”