The father of a nine-week-old baby who died at the St. Gregory Hospital in Kasoa over a GHS533 bill, is reported to have managed to rush to the hospital with the money just two hours after the medical doctor cut oxygen supply to the infant.
The baby who was known as Prosper had been on admission at the hospital since 5 March after he fell sick and could not breath properly until his death three weeks later.
Reports of the death of a nine-week-old baby at the St Gregory Hospital at Kasoa in the Central Region due to the inability of his parents to pay an amount of GH¢533 for an oxygen machine hit the nation Wednesday, April 11 which doubles as World Health Day.
According to the baby's mother, before the Doctor on duty pulled the plugs on the oxygen machine, he asked her if her husband, Kennedy Kwao, was making efforts to pay the bill.
"That Saturday, the Doctor came and asked me if I had heard from my husband about the bills. I told him I hadn't heard from him yet. Then he removed the oxygen plug...I cried at the hospital, but it was too late," she recalled.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has said it is wrong for a health official to cut oxygen supply to a patient over bills if the patient has a chance of surviving.
“… If you believe that the person will survive and you take off the oxygen mask because the child’s father or mother could not afford to pay, then it is unacceptable,†Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare
The Ghana Health Service has since launched an investigation into the matter.