Press Release

In the wake of the recent decision by the Board and Management of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) to impose the payment of a “development levy” by patients, and the subsequent suspension of same, the Ministry of Health wishes to sincerely apologize to the general public and most especially to patients who have had to unjustifiably suffer the consequences of this imposition. Much as we appreciate the hospital’s need for extra funding and operational logistics to continue to deliver the optimum levels of service to the good people of Ghana, it should be noted that this bottleneck is not unique to only KATH.

Wide and thorough consultations therefore ought to have been carried out among all stakeholders including the Ministry, before implementing this directive. Unfortunately this was not the case.

The Ministry further wants to put on record that indeed, KATH has since 2009, benefited from more than 34 Million Ghana cedis worth of investments in infrastructure and medical equipment.

In the opinion of some people, this level of investment may not be deep and far reaching enough to tilt the scales in favour of total, unblemished health delivery to our people. Nonetheless, they are significant, especially when added to the following additional investments by Government to further improve the health delivery situation in KATH:

1. 11 million Ghana cedis maternity and child health building under construction. Additional funds are been arranged under the deutse bank of USA to complete it.
2. Planned state-of-the- art re-equipping of the radiotherapy and nuclear medicine centre
3. A new eye centre under construction and scheduled to be completed by June, 2012.

The Ministry has further recently provided One Million Ghana cedis to support the procurement of drugs for Komfo Anokye and had also directed the NHIA to make payments on account of up to GHc2.0 Million to the hospital.

In the good name of our long suffering people, the Ministry of Health therefore wishes to reiterate the fact that the Government and people of Ghana do appreciate the trying conditions under which all medical professionals in the country have had to contend with over the years.

Indeed, the Government, through the Ministry of Health is working hard to resolve the many operational difficulties not just in KATH, but also in our deprived Community, District and Regional health facilities around the country.

We therefore wish to use this platform to advise all health facilities and agencies under the Ministry to endeavour to work within the confines of the financial administration as stipulated by the laws of the country, and refrain from causing undue hardship to health seeking Ghanaians.

Issued By The Ministry Of Health
Tuesday, 10 July 2 012