Story: Mary Ankrah
Thirty-seven detained patients at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra who had outstanding medical bills to settle got a reprieve yesterday when Vodafone Ghana picked up the tab.
The gesture, tagged Valentine’s Day “Homecoming”, was to enable patients who had finished treatment but had been detained by the hospital due to their inability to settle their bills to be discharged to enable them to reunite with their families and loved ones.
Speaking at the Korle-Bu, the Head of Corporate Communications of Vodafone Ghana, Ms Carmen Bruce-Annan, said it was the company’s intention to pay the bills of about 230 insolvent patients in government hospitals in Kumasi, Takoradi, Tamale and Accra.
According to the Principal Nursing Officer of Chenard A at the Gynaecology Ward, Ms Rita Florence Affum, some people abandoned their sick relatives in the hospital and when the patients discovered they owed huge amounts of money, most of them ran away.
She said it was difficult for the hospital authorities to run the hospital well, since most patients had not offset their medical bills.
She said some of the detained patients had been at the hospital for weeks.
For her part, the Director of Nursing Services, Mrs Victoria A. Quaye, thanked Vodafone for putting the smiles on the faces of the patients and commended the company for the gesture.
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