Only two working dialysis machines are present at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), according to a facility kidney specialist.
This, according to Dr. Elliot Koranteng Tannor, makes the situation extremely serious.
He claimed that as a result, only crucial cases make use of the devices.
He claims that even though a patient still needs it after being stabilized, they might need to be discharged in order for another critically ill patient to use it.
On Thursday, September 15, Dr. Tannor, however, hinted that the hospital was looking to purchase extra dialysis equipment during an appearance on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show.
“As it stands now, at Komfo Anokye Hospital, we have two functional dialysis machines currently, but there are plans to get more, I understand, but if you come now, we have only two, and we just keep them for acute cases, make them stable, and unfortunately, we have to send them out.”
Dr. Elliot Koranteng Tannor
According to the kidney specialist, 30% of their kidney patients pass away shortly after being admitted.
“So I put together data at KATH for ten years, and again I looked at mortality and kidney happens to be constantly one of the top five causes of death on the medical ward.
“On average, three out of ten, about 30 of my patients will die on admission,” he revealed.
Nearly half of the 16 areas in the nation lack access to dialysis equipment, according to Dr. Tannor.
He claimed that a circumstance has put a strain on the few people they have in Kumasi.
“I did some study in 2018, where we looked at the geographical location of dialysis units across the country, then it was ten regions, it was actually five out of the ten regions don’t have it and indeed we have increased our regions, but the numbers have not increased much.”
He added that, according to the data at his disposal, around 13 Ghanaians out of every 100 had a renal illness of some kind.
He added that, according to the data at his disposal, around 13 Ghanaians out of every 100 had a renal illness of some kind.
He claimed that a certain circumstance ought to be of greater concern to the entire nation.
“How common the disease is in this country, everybody should be concerned in the sense that our data actually shows that about 13 out of 100 people have some form of kidney disease.”
Akua Karle Okyere
Akua Karle Okyere is a lifestyle blogger at The Vocal Ghanaian and also a PR technician. She enjoys researching on travels and tours and writing fictional stories in her leisure time.