For those in the health industry, Oxygen is an important element in human life sustainability and that means when Oxygen is needed and cannot be found the patient will die in no time.
In the Upper Regional Hospital, patients are made to buy Oxygen when needed for themselves to save their dear lives and this is as a result of the inability of the National Health Insurance Authority to continuously pay to the Regional Hospital the money due them to enable them to procure some of these important necessities for their patients.
Patients who spoke to Apexnewsgh.com complained that, it is very dangerous for a hospital to rely on individuals who sell these products in their own capacity.
However, when this platform contacted the regional hospital Administrator Yakubu Zakaria he confirmed the unfortunate development but insisted, that is what they could do to support.
He said: “Oxygen is a product like any other product we used in the hospital. So, when you come and oxygen is put on you, you pay for it. You don’t pay the full cost, just a portion of it”.
According to him, the hospital doesn’t produce Oxygen: “We don’t produce oxygen ourselves, we go outside to go and buy either from Kumasi or Tamale depending on how quickly we can get it.
“If you are not holding money, the person selling the oxygen will not give you, we don’t produce and this is a lifesaving commodity, if the person doesn’t get the oxygen, he or she will die in a very short while”.
“So, you asked yourself, National Health Insurance has paid you up to April 2022, we are in January 2023. So, if you have to wait till health insurance pays you before you buy, it means you are just going to be shifting people to their graves. So, we thought it wise that, instead of saying we don’t have it, let’s look for a way of putting the cost on the patient, so that we gather the money when it finishes we can buy and come and continue using. He said
He added, that other hospitals will tell you they don’t have and sit down because not everybody takes life seriously. So, we will continue support to continuously get oxygen so that lives can be saved.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com/Ghana
For publication please kindly contact us at +233256336062 or Email apexnewsgh@gmail.com
