Damnable indictment
Mahatma Gandhi has noted that “an error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” This seems to be the situation with health professionals in public employment, who spend most of their time in private practice.
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At the launch of a book by Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng last week, Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa, a former Director General of the Ghana Health Service, damningly indicted senior personnel of the nation’s premier hospital of engaging in professional ‘galamsey’. Prof. Akosa openly accused personnel of the hospital of cheating by spending most of their time on private work. The audience included the cream of the medical profession in the country, such that if there was no substance in the allegation he would have felt intimidated. That he had the confidence in making the allegation and extensively elaborated on the different professional groups engaged in the dysfunctional act underlined the fact that the practice is diffused.
Cheating by Korle Bu medical professionals
That is why I have decided to comment on the issue and bring it up for public discussion. I had some knowledge of the practice when Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. He once confided in me that he was having problems with some of his colleagues about the practice of using official time for private work. He was more particular about senior medical officers who sometimes diverted patients from Korle Bu to private clinics. The patients were comfortable because they were aware that if there were any complications they would easily be transferred to Korle Bu.
From the perspective of Prof. Akosa, the practice involves all shades of professionals, from nurses and doctors through pharmacists and laboratory technicians. All that these cheats do is to report for work at Korle Bu and then move to their private places of engagement. He wondered how some of such facilities are accredited, mindful of the human resource requirements before they are recognised and approved to practise.
Cheating by professionals in other facilities
Since Prof. Akosa made his comments, it has emerged that it is not only Korle Bu which suffers from the ‘galamsey’, Komfo Anokye and many other public health institutions suffer the bleeding, as their staff not only spend official time making private money but equally draw patients away from the public health facilities. Yet, they are able to claim extra duty hours allowance.
Is this also about the tale of ‘chopping’ from the work side? The allegation is very critical and requires the attention of all the professional health groups. Whenever any of them, whether the medical doctors, pharmacists, nurses, midwives and technicians, have found it necessary, they have appealed to the public for support in pursuing a cause through a course. Now the ball is in their courts; they are noted to be cheating the public and, therefore, they must do introspection and charge their members to do what is right, just and fair. They must work for their money by spending the full hours that they are mandated to put in before they decide to sell their labour to others.
Tendency to defend practice
Since the practice has persisted for so long, it may be seen as normal. Indeed, the galamsey by health professionals is diffused and widespread and may be difficult to fight. The tendency is for those involved to defend their turf. Most of them will argue particularly that they use their spare time to do the private work.
We might have to refresh our minds about what informed the Ghana Education Service to ban extra classes as an official engagement. A number of teachers did not approach their normal teaching hours with any sense of responsibility. They just broached the subject and fixed extra classes which attracted fees. They comprehensively and thoroughly taught the subject, rendering it somewhat compulsorily voluntary for students to enrol to pass well in examinations.
It cannot be ethically justified for public health workers to lure patients to private facilities. We must discuss the issue of public health workers spending time in private hospitals and laboratories when they are not on leave.
More importantly, these same personnel are more patient-friendly when they are working at the private facilities than when they are at post in public health facilities. This is not a matter for which the professional groups must be defensive or offensive. Prof. Akosa is one of them and he has seen what such tendencies have done in undermining public confidence in public healthcare delivery. Ironically, these are the last places of resort when matters become critical or get out of hand at private health facilities.
