• Dr Akoto-Ampaw speaking at the meeting

Two hundred and one patients treated at the Eastern Re­gional Hospital at Koforidua, vanished into thin air without paying their medical bills totalling GH¢168,405

Narrating the sad story to The Spectator at Koforidua, Dr. Arko Akoto-Ampaw, the Medical Di­rector, revealed that a total of GH¢103,476 was lost in 2022 be­cause 77 patients failed to pay the hospital fees after they had been treated.

He claimed that in 2021, 58 patients failed to pay their bills, amounting to GH¢39,356, while in 2020, the hospital lost GH¢25,573 because 66 patients defaulted.

He was worried about the trend and said that the continuous loss of such huge sums of money annually was a drain on the hospital’s cof­fers.

Dr. Akoto-Ampaw, who spoke to The Spectator during the hospital’s 2022 Annual Review Meeting with the press, advised patients who owed the hospital to approach the Social Welfare Department to ne­gotiate payment plans in case they were unable to pay their medical bills but not to sneak out of the facility.

The review meeting was held to make public the hospital’s activ­ities undertaken during the year under review, and to explain their achievements and challenges, as well as the way forward.

The Medical Director explained that “sometimes we want to give a

 human face to some of these situa­tions, and because we are a gov­ernment hospital, we do not want to take money before we serve the patients.

“Human life is important, and so we first take care of the patients and then demand the money later; that should not warrant some pa­tients running away.”

He said, “this place is not a pris­on, and so you cannot also prevent people from walking about and tak­ing fresh air, and that is how they disappear. They take their things out one after the other, and then they vanish.”

Dr. Akoto-Ampaw said the hospi­tal had put in measures that would ensure that patients were tracked and made to pay after treatment or sign undertakings before they were allowed to leave the hospital.

He said that some patients classi­fied as “paupers”, that is, those for whom the hospital was certain they genuinely could not afford to pay for the services rendered them, also caused a loss of GH¢3,183 in 2022, GH¢9,096 in 2021, and GH¢9,561 in 2020.

He disclosed that out of a total  amount of GH¢166,760 owed to the hospital by patients who signed un­dertakings to pay later, GH¢34,136 had been redeemed.

He said the hospital had reha­bilitated some facilities, including washrooms for the mother’s hostels, a CT scan ward, a pre-operating room at the main theatre, and the construction of an autopsy unit.

From Ama Tekyiwaa Ampadu Agyeman, Koforidua