Customer Care in public health facilities have often been a source of complain

Preaching virtue and practising vice

Opinion Sep - 29 - 2017 , 15:45

It is sometimes amazing to hear people vehemently defending a cause to the extent that even if it calls for going to jail for that cause, they may be ready for it. Some of these people do so when they have vested interest in the cause they are defending. However, when the tables turn and such persons are on the receiving end and are expected to show character and ensure justice, they fail miserably.
Who would have thought that Dr Opoku Adusei, the former President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), who used to passionately defend the rights of medical doctors in the country, would play down a case of alleged medical negligence which has led to the death of a 10-year-old boy at the Tema General Hospital where he is currently the Director?

When JoyNews Reporter, Maxwell Agbagba, went to his office to interview him about the death of the boy, Dr Adusei’s response was that he was too busy so the reporter should come back the following week. He even made a casual

Please, Dr Adusei, as a medical doctor, we know you see patients die virtually everyday but the circumstance under which this death occurred is disheartening, to say the least. For a moment, just imagine that it was your sister who sent her 10-year-old son to another hospital and was prescribed Diclofenac (50mg) but was rather given Diclofenac (75mg) at the same hospital’s pharmacy. When your imaginary sister drew the prescribing doctor’s attention to the situation, he asked her to go ahead and administer the drug, resulting in the death of your nephew. If you were told about this situation, would you treat the matter the way you are handling this case, knowing how vocal you are? You wouldn’t.

Life is priceless and once lost, can never be bought or brought back. Please sir, have you forgotten how passionately you used to “fight” the government for allowances and other benefits which, in your opinion, were due your members in your days as president of the GMA? Could it be that you were assertive then because you had a personal interest in the cause you were fighting for? For God’s sake, be a bit sympathetic towards the poor widow who had earlier lost her husband at the same hospital and had even sworn never to seek treatment at the Tema General Hospital again.

I plead with you to use your good office to bring to book anyone found to have misconducted themselves in their professional practice. Such cases happen too often in this country but nobody is made to face the full rigours of the law. This must not be added to the statistics.

When political leaders are campaigning for votes, they behave like angels and make all kinds of promises but when they eventually win power, they show their true colours. How could the Deputy Minister of Trade, Mr Ahomka Lindsay, talk down to prospective investors with his “whining” insinuation and still be at post without even a reprimand?

Corruption

How on earth could a contract be awarded for the importation of ambulances only for the wrong vehicles to be supplied? According to the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the so-called ambulances are like sprinter buses (Trotro) fitted with kitchen cabinets. Where else could this happen if not in my motherland Ghana?
Notwithstanding the fact that the ambulances did not meet the required specifications and could, therefore, not be used for the intended medical purpose, my information is that the total cost of 2,500,000 euros has already been paid at the expense of the “poor” taxpayer. The question is, will somebody be held accountable for this? Your guess is as good as mine.

This is Ghana, where grand corruption is rewarded big time. In my country of birth, formerly called Gold Coast, all you need is to look for an opportunity to steal big money. The worst that could happen to you is that you will be crucified in the media for two weeks. Once you have the thick skin to stand the hullabaloo, you can even approve or sign a contract for the supply of goods which are not needed at all.

How on earth could a former Local Government Minister, Mr Collins Dauda, append his signature to a certificate of urgency for the supply of one million waste bins when 54,500 supplied earlier could not be distributed because the distribution centres were already choked with bins? If our country was not a safe haven for evildoers where people are not held responsible for their misdeeds, how could a contractor be paid the contract sum even before approval was given for the job to be executed as in the case of the Smarrtys bus rebranding?