Patients mustn’t be fleeced for selfish gains

The central laboratory of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) recently made a heart-warming statement that must excite the average citizen.

This claim is to the effect that the laboratory has the capacity to perform the various diagnostic tests that doctors of the hospital refer to private facilities around the hospital.

This is good news because public health facilities are relatively less expensive and, therefore, affordable to patients and their families.

There is no point reiterating the fact that the services of private health facilities, particularly diagnostic centres, are expensive to acquire.

Private health facilities operate predominantly as profit-oriented entities, and look to do better than just breaking even or staying afloat. 

When ill-health strikes, a person yields to the prescriptions of health professionals, usually without questions.

Around the KBTH, which until the emergence of the University of Ghana Medical Centre was the country's premier health facility, private laboratories and various diagnostic centres abound, each of them a thriving place of work complementing the health delivery system.

Interestingly, however, these private facilities appear to have become the first port of call for doctors requesting a diagnosis for health conditions they seek to manage, fuelling allegations of conspiracy with those facilities.

Indeed, the common allegation of Korle Bu is that doctors and nurses either own the private facilities or have a stake in their operations.

Patients visiting the hospital have become accustomed to this phenomenon over the years, but there appears to be a constraint against public protestation.

Health professionals, particularly doctors, literally hold the fragile life of a patient in their hands, but this has been abused many times and on many occasions by such professionals.

Such abuses include referrals of diagnostic tests to the more expensive private facilities when similar services are available at cheaper rates in public facilities.

In the context of the KBTH, the situation appears too serious to cause the leadership of the central laboratory, led by the acting Laboratory Manager of the KBTH, Dr Michael Amo Omari, to voice in the open. “Our laboratory is ready to take care of the hospital’s patients,” Dr Omari said.

Indeed, the constant referral of cases to private laboratories and other diagnostic centres undermines not just the quality of service of the hospital’s facilities, but also the competence of the laboratories and their personnel, among others.

The Daily Graphic expects the management of the hospital to take an interest in the public declaration by the head of the central laboratory about the capacity of the facility to handle cases otherwise referred elsewhere.

The public statement is an indictment of the system that has overlooked this well-known situation and seems to feign ignorance about it.

We acknowledge the complementary role of private facilities in the health delivery system.

They provide jobs, serve as avenues for practice for professionals and define private entrepreneurial spirit among the population.

But devising manipulative strategies to provide services that are already available at a cheaper cost seems to be a criminal mechanism to retain business.

The situation is disturbing because usually, a patient is not given the option to bring the diagnostic test results requested by the doctor from a facility of choice, even if the quality of service is no different from the doctor's preference.

Health is an invaluable asset, which underpins the very essence of wanting to live.

Without good health, life is almost meaningless.

Snuffing resources out of a patient is an unacceptable conduct unbecoming of professionals who swore the Hippocratic Oath to serve humanity diligently and in honesty.

Life should not be reduced to wealth and luxury, and those who profess to answer the calling to save lives should lead in readjusting the narrative about healthcare delivery in the country.

The Ghana Medical Association and other professional bodies within the health system must call their members to order based on the critical service they render.