There is an ever-widening gap between the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s (QEH) budget and its expenditure.
Pointing out that this year’s projected expenditure was just over 201 million dollars, Chief Executive Officer Dr. Dexter James said this was a far cry from the $154 million approved by the Ministry of Health.
He attributed this deficit to the continuous rise in costs of equipment and medical apparatus.
For example, he noted that the price of one box of 50 medical gloves had risen from $6 in 2010/2011 to $12 during the 2011/2012 period.
“Sutures, we were paying $133 for a box before, now we are paying $167. So the cost is escalating and these are extraneous for us. We do not control the cost of these things and therefore if the current budget does not keep pace with the increasing cost of what we need in the system, it means that you will have very little to sustain [this],” he said.Nevertheless, he noted that the Martindales Road facility was not doing badly when compared to international benchmarks, but still needed to improve, especially in terms of efficiency.
He pointed out that Moody’s suggested that high performing hospitals have bed stays on average of 4.9 to 5.3 days. Meanwhile, the average stay at the QEH is 6.4 days – a factor which places tremendous pressure on the various departments.
James disclosed that it costs $16.8 million monthly to run the hospital, and the facility would be hard-pressed in finding a way to reduce this figure as many of the departments dealt with saving lives.
“We have not added any new services to what we have, we simply want to sustain what we currently have,” he emphasised.At the time, he was speaking during the recent launch of the QEH equipment prospectus on at the Accra Beach Hotel.
Arguing that the Consolidated Fund could not foot the bill for the type of resources needed, he stated that the public has to be engaged in a new model of financing for the country’s main medical institution.
(JMB)
