GMA announces increment in cost of medical services
The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has announced an increment in the cost of medical services rendered by its members.
The increment which takes effect from September 1, 2019, affects services such as autopsy reports, exhumation, permission cases, general medical reports for school, travel, employment, mortgage and police reports.
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This was contained in a letter the association wrote to its members earlier this week.
Exhumation reports, for example, will cost you not less than GH¢10,000 whilst Police reports on rape will cost you GH¢300 and GH¢800.
The fees are to be paid directly to the individual doctor aside any other administrative charges that will be paid to the medical facility a patient seeks attention from.
The General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association Dr. Justice Yankson in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM explained that such fees are payments for the professional service of the medical practitioner.
“If a pathologist should look into an issue and he does the autospy and comes out with his report, that report is part of his regular services for the facility that he works with. He is employed as pathologist for that facility and he has done his work so no fee for that pathologist for that work.”
“However, if this man has to go and exhume a body, that is the Judicial Service, the Coroner’s office says it wants Pathologist to perform this autopsy for them and come out with a report, that will be furnished to the Coroner’s office. We are saying that, that is not the man’s traditional job, it is a one-off thing you have contracted him,” he said.
The letter from the GMA said, “the stated professional fees are the actual payments (money) to be given to or received by the Medical Doctor or Dentist irrespective of whatever collection procedure (with or without administrative charges) put in place at the facility or institutional level.”
Credit: Citinewsroom.com
