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HOSPITAL
FEES ACT, 1971 (ACT 387)
ARRANGEMENT OF
SECTIONS
Section
1. Hospital
Fees
2. General
exemptions from hospital fees
3. Exemptions
for particular services
4. Exemptions
for particular classes of persons
5. Increased
fees payable in certain cases
6. Persons
liable to pay fees
7. Manner of
payment of fees
8. Recovery of
fees
9. Evidence
10. False
representations
11. Regulations
12.
Interpretation
13. Repeals
14.
Commencement.
THE THREE
HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-SEVENTH
ACT OF THE
PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF
GHANA
ENTITLED
THE HOSPITAL
FEES ACT, 1971
AN ACT to
regulate the fees payable in
respect of hospital services, and
for matters connected therewith.
DATE OF ASSENT:
6th October, 1971
BE IT ENACTED
by the President and the National
Assembly in this present
Parliament assembled as follows—
Section
1—Hospital Fees.
(1) Subject to
the provisions of this Act, any
person who receives services at a
hospital shall pay for those
services the prescribed basic
fees.
(2) Except as
provided by this Act and
regulations made thereunder, no
person shall be liable to pay any
fees in respect of services
rendered to him in a hospital.
Section
2—General Exemptions from Hospital
Fees.
No fees shall
be paid in respect of services
rendered in a hospital to—
(a) any person
certified in writing by a medical
officer to be unable to pay those
fees on the ground of poverty;
(b) any person
suffering from such disease or
condition as may be prescribed;
(c) any pupil
or student receiving full-time
education in a recognised
institution;
(d) any
prescribed class of persons
working or studying within the
Health Service;
(e) any person
requested by the medical officer
concerned to attend or come to a
hospital for admission for the
purpose of teaching;
(f) any person
for the time being in lawful
custody;
(g) any
certified psychiatric patient;
(h) any other
prescribed class of persons.
Section
3—Exemptions for Particular
Services.
(1) No fees
shall be paid in respect of any
medical examination or report
required by any department of
state, or in connection with the
official duties of any employee of
a department of state, or in
connection with the entry of any
person into a department of state
or his departure therefrom.
(2) No fees
shall be paid by any person
receiving medical attention in a
hospital in respect of any medical
report relating to him.
(3) No fees
shall be paid by any person in
respect of any prescribed
laboratory examination carried out
on him during out-patient
attendance.
(4) No fees
shall be paid by any person in
respect of X-ray films taken for
the purposes of tuberculosis
control.
(5) No fees
shall be paid by any person other
than a non-resident alien—
(a) in respect
of any casualty treatment given
which does not involve admission
into hospital; or
(b) in respect
of treatment involving splints or
other similar appliances.
Section
4—Exemptions for Particular
Classes of Persons.
(1) No fees
other than the fees prescribed for
accommodation and maintenance
shall be paid in respect of
services rendered in a hospital
to—
(a) any person
who is not gainfully employed and
who is under the age of eighteen
years or over the age of
sixty-five years;
(b) any person
other than a non-resident alien in
respect of ante-natal care at a
health post, rural health centre
or clinic, or any other hospital
specified by the Director of
Medical Services by notice
published in the Gazette;
(c) any
maternity patient who has had four
or more child births;
(d) any
maternity patient referred to a
hospital from a clinic or health
centre;
(e) any
maternity patient referred to a
hospital by a registered midwife
or registered medical
practitioner.
(2) No fees in
respect of accommodation or
maintenance shall be paid where
any person referred to in
subsection (1) is exempted from
such payment by any provision of
section 2.
(3)
Notwithstanding the provisions of
subsections (1) and (2) of this
section where a patient requests
for special amenities such patient
shall pay such fees as may be
prescribed.
Section
5—Increased Fees Payable in
Certain Cases.
Where services
are rendered in a hospital to any
person who is—
(a) a private
patient; or
(b) a
non-resident alien; or
(c) a member of
the diplomatic staff of a country
which does not give reciprocal
medical coverage to Ghanaian
diplomatic staff accredited to
that country or Ghanaians resident
in that country; or
(d) the wife or
child of a person referred to in
paragraph (c),
and such person
is liable to pay any fee under the
foregoing provisions of this Act,
the fee payable shall be not less
than such fee as shall be payable
by a Ghanaian diplomat accredited
to or resident in the country of
that person.
Section
6—Persons Liable to Pay Fees.
(1) Subject to
the provision of this section, the
person liable to pay any fee under
this Act shall be the person in
respect of whom the service was
rendered.
(2)
Notwithstanding subsection (1),
where it is a term in the
conditions of service of any
person employed by the Government
that such person shall be entitled
to receive any free medical
attention, such person shall to
that extent not be liable for the
payment of fees under this Act.
Section
7—Manner of Payment of Fees.
(1) The fees
payable under this Act shall be
paid to the hospital revenue
officer at the hospital where the
fees were incurred, upon the issue
by that officer of a bill
specifying the fees to be paid.
(2) The
hospital revenue officer shall
issue an official receipt to every
person making a payment under this
Act.
(3) Any
hospital revenue officer who
fails, at the time of receiving a
payment under this Act, to issue
an official receipt to the person
making that payment, shall be
guilty of an offence and liable on
summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding two thousand new cedis
or to imprisonment not exceeding
twelve months or to both.
Section
8—Recovery of Fees.
A hospital
revenue officer or any other
person appointed by the Minister
may sue for the recovery of any
fees payable under this Act which
are unpaid together with any costs
properly incurred.
Section
9—Evidence.
In any
proceedings for the recovery of
any fees payable under this Act,
an account signed by the hospital
revenue officer setting out the
amount claimed from the defendant
in the proceedings shall be
admissible in evidence without
proof of the signature, and shall
be prima facie evidence of the
amount due.
Section
10—False Representations.
(1) Any person
who by a false representation
obtains without payment or at a
reduced rate of payment any
medicine, surgical appliance,
attendance or treatment at a
hospital shall be guilty of an
offence and liable on conviction
to a fine not exceeding one
hundred new cedis.
(2) Any person
who commits any of the acts
referred to in subsection (1)
shall, whether or not he is
prosecuted, be liable to pay for
such medicine, surgical appliance,
attendance or treatment at the
prescribed rates, and in respect
of such payment shall not be
entitled to the benefit of any
exemption under this Act.
Section
11—Regulations.
The Minister
may with the approval of the
Cabinet by legislative instrument
make regulations prescribing
anything that is to be prescribed
for the purposes of this Act,
granting further exemptions in
respect of any class of persons or
any form of treatment, or
otherwise for giving effect to the
provisions and purposes of this
Act.
Section
12—Interpretation.
(1) In this
Act,—
"department of
state" includes the Civil Service,
the Judicial Service, the Teaching
Service, the Police Service, the
Prisons Service, the Armed Forces
of Ghana, and any other prescribed
service;
"hospital"
means any government-controlled
hospital, dispensary, health
centre, clinic, mental or
psychiatric hospital or other
government medical institution at
which medical treatment is
available;
"hospital
revenue officer" means the officer
responsible for the collection of
fees at a hospital;
"medical
officer concerned" means a medical
officer wholly or partly
responsible for the medical care
of a patient at a hospital;
"Minister"
means the Minister responsible for
Health;
"non-resident
alien" means an alien who does not
have a residence permit entitling
him to remain in Ghana for six
months or more, or who is not
lawfully exempted from having a
residence permit;
"prescribed"
means prescribed by regulations
made under section 11;
"private
patient" means a patient who
requests and is prepared to pay
for special attention and
amenities in lieu of the attention
and amenities ordinarily
appropriate to his case;
"special
amenities" means the accommodation
and maintenance of a patient in a
ward designated by the Director of
Medical Services as an amenity
ward, in which the patient enjoys
personal facilities for washing
and toilet and where special diets
and other facilities are provided
at extra cost.
(2) Where there
is any doubt as to whether an
institution at which treatment is
available is government-controlled
so as to be a "hospital" within
the meaning of this Act, the
Director of Medical Services,
after consultation with the
Minister, may resolve such doubt
by notice published in the
Gazette.
Section
13—Repeals.
The Hospital
Fees Decree, 1969 (N.L.C.D. 360)
and the Hospital Fees Decree, 1969
(Amendment) Act, 1970 (Act 325)
are hereby repealed.
Section
14—Commencement.
This Act shall
be deemed to come into force on
the 1st day of October, 1971. |
