The government will from December 1, 2024, begin a free dialysis treatment programme for persons with kidney disease in the country.

It follows the successful piloting of the initiative over the last six months.

The initiative, to be funded by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), would be carried out by 40 health institutions, including the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Western Regional Hospital, Cape Coast Teaching Hospital and the Tamale Teaching Hospital.

The free dialysis treatment is expected to cost between GH¢20 and GH¢57 million, annually based on the prevalence rate.

The launch of the initiative followed a meeting between the NHIA and heads of the various hospitals and dialysis units participating in the programme to see how to run it seamlessly.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NHIA, Dr DaCosta Aboagye, announced the free dialysis treatment in Accra yesterday during a media engagement.

“In the last six months, we have been doing a pilot of the dialysis programme of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA). We started in June when children below the age of 18 and adults above the age of 60 were given eight sections of dialysis for free. In between, 19 to 59 were given two sessions for free.

“We had an allocation from Parliament, which was GH¢2 million. We looked at our corporate social responsibility budget and we added another GH¢2.2 million. So, the total amount that we used for the pilot was GH¢4.2 million,” he said.

Dr Aboagye said the initial submission of several persons submitted by the dialysis association to the NHIA was around 700 but when the pilot was done, the actual number came to 400.

“So, annually, the NHIA will spend between 20 to 57 million to cover the 1,200 patients based on the prevalence who are on dialysis.  

On why the NHIA was able to take on the free dialysis, he said the organisation (authority) used the prevalence rates of persons suffering from kidney problems.

Dr Aboagye said with Parliamentary approval of GH¢491 for the dialysis as per session, it took the 400 actual and multiplied that by the 491 and multiplied by the eight sessions – two per week (in a month).

Source of funding

He said with about GH¢2.2 million left over from the pilots, the budget for 2025 was supposed to be about GH¢8.1 billion, half of which went into claims.

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He said the authority would do some rearrangements by looking within to see whether to reduce “Our administrative cost to fund it. It wouldn't be any problem, because, at the end of the day, our current budget is about GH¢6.8 billion, So, to take 56 million out and pay for it is something that we can do”.

Dr Aboagye said the authority also looked at the fact that the manifestos of both parties were on uncapping the NHIA. At the moment, he said the authority was capped at about 20 per cent.

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In collaboration with the World Bank, he said the Ministry of Health and the NHIA were procuring some dialysis equipment.

Currently, he said seven out of 30 equipment ordered had been delivered, with the remaining 23 to be cleared from the ports. Fifteen additional equipment, he said, had also been approved by the Public Procurement Authority just last month and had been put into procurement.