15 children die at Tamale Teaching Hospital due to lack of dialysis machine

Fifteen (15) children have reportedly died at the Tamale Teaching Hospital due to the unavailability of a pediatric dialysis machine.

In a report by Accra based Citi FM, the children lost their lives from other people essential medical equipments as well.

This was disclosed by Adam Yahaya Wanzam, the Nurse Manager of the Tamale Teaching Hospital Dialysis Unit in an interview with the station.

He issued a desperate plea for assistance, urging the government, individuals, and non-governmental organizations to step forward and provide the life-saving equipment and supplies that are urgently needed.

“We have lost over 10 to 15 children who were supposed to receive dialysis,” Wanzam lamented. “But for a lack of pediatric machines, we were improvising with the adult machines, and the adult machines and consumables are not for children.”

Wanzam added that the consequences of this shortage are devastating, not only for the children who have lost their lives but also for their families who must endure the unimaginable pain.

“We are calling on individuals and Non-governmental organisations to come to our aid by helping us acquire these pediatric machines and consumables so that when an innocent child finds him/herself in this situation, the Tamale Teaching Hospital Dialysis unit can be able to rescue them.”

Relatedly, the Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr. Bernard Oko-Boye said the scheme will start covering dialysis treatment.

He lamented in an interview with Joy FM that dialysis was too expensive for most people with renal diseases to handle on their own, as many of them might not be able to afford these treatments.

His comments follow suggestions by some analysts that the National Health Insurance Scheme should be funded sufficiently to be able to bear the cost of kidney condition treatments.

“As a country, I can tell you boldly, if we are committed, we can pay totally for kidney care,” Dr Okoe Boye acknowledged.

Elaborating on his point of view, he cited the setting up of a ‘chronic disease fund or the peripheral disease fund’ as one of three important measures that could help alleviate the predicaments of kidney disease patients in Ghana.

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