Several vulnerable mothers remain stranded in maternal wards after delivering their babies due to their inability to settle their medical bills.
The long weeks of detention are always accompanied by harsh conditions.
“The patients mostly from rural communities, are unable to settle their bills. Sometimes we- medical staff- have to step in to support or mobilise funds from benevolent people to settle their bills,” a midwife at the Gomoa Oguaa Clinic, Kemor Mathilda, told news reporters..
At the labour ward of the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba, Philippa Asante, a mother, remained in detention several weeks after delivering her baby because she could not raise funds to settle her entire medical bills, which swelled beyond her ability as a result of liver disease.
“I have been here for several weeks after giving birth. I am struggling to pay my bills because I have another condition- a liver disease. I am only supported by other patients who are also in the ward and solely rely on the lunch offered by the hospital,” she told Newsmen.
Though Ghana is running the free maternal health policy, some basic necessities and birth complications are not covered by the policy.
In the Central Region, some benevolent non-governmental organisations provide occasional support to patients in randomly selected health facilities.
Founder of one of such foundations, Selassie Doughan, following donations to patients at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba, Gomoa Oguaa Clinic, Gomoa Enyame, Gomoa Tarkwa and Gomoa Ehyiam CHPs compounds, suggested a review of the free maternal care policy.
“The policy is actually supporting mothers, but I am strongly convinced that it needs a review. It must cover every cost of labour and delivery. But while we wait on the government’s consideration of this suggestion, we’ll keep supporting mothers,”
