Patients Sneak Out of Hospital

...can't pay medical bills

IT HAS become clear that majority of patients who sought medical treatment at the Cape Coast District hospital here last year, managed to escape from the hospital after receiving medical care without settling their bill, thus causing a loss of over ?40 million to the hospital.

The Municipal Director of Health, Dr. Yaw Ofori Yeboah, disclosed this during a presentation of hospital drugs and equipment valued at ?500 million donated by the Municipal Assembly, in collaboration with its sister city of Philadelphia in the USA and a benevolent Ghanaian citizen based in the US.

He pointed out that in most cases, the people who absconded with the bills, made part payment only to go and come no more, while others failed to pay anything at all because they claimed they cannot afford the payment of the bills.

Dr. Ofori Yeboah regretted that the government's subsidy on health delivery for pregnant women, children under five years and most especially paupers was woefully inadequate to meet the health needs of the aforementioned people.

As a result, he said, his outfit has improved its security measures of the district hospital to prevent clients from escaping without paying their bills, since the attitude of those who escaped with their bills has caused the hospital a lot.

The Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive, Mr. Muniru Arafat Nuhu, who presented the items on behalf of the donors, noted that the assembly in collaboration with the district health directorate and some community leaders would soon establish a Mutual Health Organisation (MHO) in the municipality to increase its access to health services.

The municipal assembly, he said, has already provided MHO with an office and an amount of ?10million to support its programme.

He expressed concern about the poor health conditions in the municipality and attributed the situation to the frequent breakdown of the assembly's skip loader and cesspool emptier.

He asked God's blessing for the donors and hoped God will relinquish whatever they had spent on the donation one hundred fold.

Mr. Arafat Nuhu emphasised that the assembly will continue to initiate policies and pursue programmes aimed at ensuring good health for the people in the municipality but pointed out that major headache of the assembly in ensuring proper sanitation is the indiscriminate dumping of refuse at unauthorised placed thus compounding the already existing problems associated with the breakdown of sanitary vehicles of the assembly.

He therefore appealed to the people to pay their taxes regularly to enable the assembly to accomplish its development programmes.

The Central Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Aaron Offei, who also spoke, said with the launch of the SHS, the Ministry of Health would focus its attention on service delivery to ensure quality health care for all.

He commended the donors for their kind gesture and called on other individuals and organisations to emulate their shining example since the government alone cannot provide all the health needs of the people.

The items included beds, mattresses, a refrigerator, dress, stretches, syringes, needles and gloves.