Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, Chief Executive Officer of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), has revealed that most of the hospital’s services run at a financial loss.
He explained that the hospital depends on support from other sources to maintain daily operations and prevent collapse.
In an interview on The Point of View on Channel One TV with Bernard Avle, Dr. Ampomah highlighted that although the hospital aims to achieve financial balance, it prioritizes the needs of the poor and vulnerable in its pricing decisions to ensure healthcare remains accessible.
“For a lot of the services we actually run at a loss. So, we try and get some support. It’s a way of the philosophy of medicine, in America, medicine is very commercial, so, they charge all the rates and you have to either get insurance or something to pay for it.
He emphasised, “But here, [Ghana], we see medicine as more like a social service, and so, that is the kind of model.
So, in most institutions like a teaching hospital in particular, you will be happy to just break even.
“Because at the end of the day, you are treating all kinds of people. You also want to make sure that it’s not out of reach of the poor and vulnerable. That is the balancing that we’re doing.”
