Seventeen state-of-the-art dialysis machines are being shipped to Ghana, potentially transforming kidney care access across the country’s regions in the north by enabling the establishment of multiple new dialysis centers.
The machines, donated by Island Health in Canada through connections fostered by Ghana Medical Help’s clinical engineering program, will be distributed between the Upper East and Upper West regions to create new dialysis facilities outside regional capitals.
“The plan is to have two more in the Upper East, then two more in the Upper West, and so that will sort of increase the numbers,” said Dr. Dominic Akaateba, co-founder of Ghana Medical Help, in an interview with A1 Radio. He added that proposed locations include Navrongo and Sandema in the Upper East Region and Nandom in the Upper West Region. He was, however, quick to add that there are still local conversations that are ongoing to determine final locations for the establishment of new dialysis centers.
The donation emerged from a May visit by Canadian faculty to the Upper West Regional Hospital during Ghana Medical Help’s annual clinical engineering conference.
“They saw one of our dialysis units in the Upper West, which had just a single functioning machine. And of course it’s always good to network. When he got back, his hospital was gracious enough to give us one of the latest dialysis machines, 17 of them,” Dr. Akaateba explained.
Martin Pullen, Director of Biomedical Engineering at Island Health in Canada, led the initiative to secure the machines from his institution.
Shipping costs of over 16,000 U.S. dollars have been covered by a private donor, while Ghana Medical Help is working with Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, to secure an import waiver once the bill of lading is received.
However, establishing functional dialysis centers requires more than just machines. Each facility needs specialized infrastructure, including piping systems, reverse osmosis (RO) rooms, and water storage tanks. Ghana Medical Help is engaging local stakeholders, including municipal and district assemblies, to support these preparatory requirements.
“It takes a lot to set up a dialysis center. Rather than just the machine that is coming in, we’ve got to usually do the piping systems, we’ve got to construct the RO rooms, and then we have polytanking and all of that available,” Akaateba said.
The organization expects all preparations to be completed by February, when the machines arrive, enabling a “plug and play” setup.
Currently, only three dialysis centers operate across Ghana’s five northern regions. Tamale was established first, followed by Wa in 2021, and preparations for Bolgatanga began in 2023. The new machines will increase the total from three to seven centers.
“Bolga has about 11 machines that are working. Tamale doesn’t even have up to 11. So if you watch the numbers, the dynamics are way better in Bolga currently,” Dr. Akaateba noted. The Wa facility, which he helped establish in 2022, operates two of its three machines.
The strategic placement of dialysis centers in district hospitals addresses a critical timing issue in kidney care. The facilities will focus particularly on acute kidney injury (AKI), a sudden loss of kidney function where immediate treatment can mean the difference between full recovery and permanent damage.
“Acute kidney injury is like a sudden drop in the function of your kidneys. Sudden. Kidneys stop working. Sometimes when we dialyze you sooner, we are able to get the kidney back to work, so that you don’t need dialysis for the rest of your life. But if we don’t, sometimes complications set in, and sometimes we even lose you,” Dr. Akaateba explained.
AKI can develop rapidly and produce life-threatening complications, including pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs) and hyperkalemia (dangerous potassium levels). Having dialysis capabilities closer to patients eliminates the need for risky long-distance transfers to regional capitals.
“Time is of the essence. So if your kidneys shut down and you have what we call pulmonary edema or you have what we call hyperkalemia, there are complications of the shutdown. Sometimes you may need to remove those toxins before then you can move on,” he said.
The timing of the expansion aligns favorably with recent policy changes that have removed financial barriers to dialysis treatment. Under the National Health Insurance Scheme and the Mahama CARES program, dialysis is now covered, with the government paying approximately 1,000 Ghanaian cedis per patient per week — about 4,000 cedis monthly.
“Now that it’s free, the government pays about 1,000 cedis per person per week. So the burden is no longer much more on the pocket of the person. And once the access is also not a problem, then it helps all of our people,” Akaateba said.
Previously, patients faced the dual challenge of high treatment costs and limited access to facilities, often requiring travel to Tamale or other distant locations for care. A patient from Fumbisi or Sandema, for example, would need to travel all the way to Bolgatanga for treatment under the current system.
The decentralized approach also recognizes that medical emergencies don’t respect geography or social status.
“You may think that you are in the luxury of Accra, Kumasi and all of that, and if you are sick you access better healthcare. But you come home to visit family, you come for Christmas, and sometimes the emergency will not wait till you get back to your well-functioning hospital,” Dr. Akaateba said.
He emphasized the importance of local ownership and stakeholder engagement in ensuring the success of the new facilities, calling on community leaders, municipal and district chief executives to support the initiative.
Source: A1 Radio | 101.1Mhz | Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith | Bolgatanga
