ECOBANK Ghana Limited has provided financial assistance to the tune of GH¢50,000 to cover the outstanding bills of 23 mothers who were unable to settle their medical bills after safe deliveries and had been detained by medical authorities.
The beneficiaries are from the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) and the 37 Military Hospital.
The gesture was undertaken jointly by the Bank and its Brand Ambassador, Gregory Bortey Newman known in showbiz circles as King Promise.
Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana, Mr Dan Sackey said “as a bank, we have always taken the discharge of our corporate social responsibilities serious, mainly along the three pillars of Health, Education and Financial Inclusion. It is for this reason that we are responding positively to the calls to support these new mothers and their babies.”
Ecobank, he maintained “does this, in line with our commitment to supporting worthy causes in the communities we operate in across the 33 markets in Africa, where Ecobank is present.”
Turning to the nursing mothers, Mr Sackey sympathised with them, saying “we understand the challenges you are faced with. Your unwavering dedication to the well-being of your babies is admirable. As you receive this financial assistance, we hope it brings you some relief, eases your burden, and paves the way for a brighter future for both you and your little ones.”
He encouraged the beneficiaries to particularly cultivate the habit of savings, “right from today, so you are able to see your babies through school, when they are of school going age. Savings and investments are the surest ways by which you can be financially included and liberate yourselves from poverty.”
Full of appreciation for the gesture from Ecobank, the Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital Dr Emmanuel Srofenyoh lamented that the hospital was bleeding from unpaid medical bills by nursing mothers who had been discharged to go home with their new borns but could hardly honour their bills.
The unpaid bills, according to him had accumulated and “the last time we checked for last year, some GH¢4million had gone into bad debt.”
He said the facility receives referrals of complicated cases from far and near and “we take care of them because they come as emergencies but when they are discharged they are unable to pay their bills and go.”
“We have an arrangement where a qualified social welfare officer comes in to investigate to confirm that indeed the mothers in question cannot pay if and if they can’t pay we write off their bills,” he explained.
