Ministry apologizes to public on imposition of “development levy”

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has apologized to patients and the general public for the imposition of a “development levy” by the Board and Management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).

A press release signed by Mr. Tony Goodman, Public Relations Officer of MOH and copied to the Ghana News Agency, said the Ministry had appreciated the hospital’s need for extra funding and operational logistics to continue to deliver the optimum levels of service to the public and that this bottleneck is not unique to only KATH.

The release said a wide and thorough consultations ought to have been carried out among stakeholders including the Ministry before implementing the directive from the Board.

“The Ministry wants to put on record that KATH has since 2009 benefited from more than 34 million Ghana cedis worth of investment in infrastructure and medical equipment” it added.

The statement said 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 the people.

The release said 11 million Ghana cedis maternity and child health building is under construction and additional funds are beng arranged under the Deutsche Bank of the United States of America to complete it.

It said the Ministry has planned for a modern equipping of the radiotherapy and nuclear medicine centre and a new eye centre under construction and scheduled to be completed by June 2012.

The release said the Ministry has recently provided one million Ghana cedis to support the procurement of drugs for Komfo Anokye and directed the National Health Insurance Authority to make payment on account of up to GH? 2.0 million to the hospital.

It added that the Ministry is working hard to resolve the operational difficulties not only in KATH but also in the derived community, districts and regional health facilities in the country.

“We wish to use this platform to advise all health facilities and agencies under the Ministry to endeavor to work within the confines of the financial administration as stipulated by laws of the country and refrain from causing undue hardship to health seeking Ghanaians” it added.**