Patients who visit the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital from today [June 1] should be prepared to pay more for some services it renders to patients.
According to statement from the hospital, Parliament has “approved for Ministries, Departments and Agencies, including the Korle Bu, to revise their fees and charges.”
Ghanaian adults will pay as much as GHc63.00 to pick a folder and see the doctor at the Polyclinic Department of the hospital.
Foreign adults will pay GHc126.00 for similar services.
Children on the other hand will pay GHc42.00 for folder and consultancy.
According management of the hospital, the revised fees will “enable the hospital to maintain and improve the services we provide to our patients and clients.”
In Septemeber 2013, the Parliamentary Committee on Subsidiary Legislation ordered management of the hospital to stop charging the new fees.
According to the committee’s chairman OB Amoah, Parliament had not yet approved the rates submitted by the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the hospital and 28 other government institutions, including the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), the Lands Commission and the Road Safety Commission.
The management explained that it inadvertently misconstrued 21 parliamentary sitting days for 21 working days for the implementation of new fees charged at the hospital.
By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom