Hospitalized patients detained after payment of bills by the deputy

Asuogyaman MP Thomas Ampem Nyarko bailed out four patients held at the Volta River Authority (VRA) hospital in Akosombo after their inability to pay their medical bills.

Patients include new mothers who have delivered by cesarean section after complications during labor.

The MP, after hearing the plight of the patients, delegated to the constituency secretary of the National Democratic Congress, Bright Sikanku, the total payment of GH GH 4,356.00 to settle the medical bills.

The practice of detaining people in hospital for non-payment of medical bills is common in secondary and tertiary health care facilities in Ghana.

Without the member’s intervention, the patients would have spent Christmas and New Years in the hospital.

The medical director of Dr Akoto Ampaw hospital with the media in Koforidua revealed that a total of four hundred and thirty-one (431) patients treated and discharged at the Eastern Regional Hospital between January and June of this year who could not pay their medical bills the bills were withheld.

“As a politician in this hospital, we save lives before we look at money, so even if you don’t have money, we’ll take care of you. so these patients have asked for a deferred payment that some have paid but the majority do not, which is a quiet problem, ”he said.

Hospital management said the hospital lost around 350,000 Ghc in 2018 to around 75 poor and needy patients who could not pay their medical bills and therefore fled while 212 signed pledged to pay their bills in installments.