Deputy Health Minister, Mahama Asei Seini says the Ministry is worried about the recent media reports of negligence against health professionals in the country.
Mahama Asei Seini says such reports are intolerable and dangerous to the positive gains of the health sector.
Speaking at the induction ceremony of some Anaesthetics in Accra, Mahama Asei Seini said the Ministry is investigating the reports and they will begin to crack the whip on offenders.
“Recent media reportage is plagued with claims of professional negligence, improper conduct and behaviour by doctors, dentists, physician assistants, nurses among others. The same people who swore the Hippocratic Oath and committed themselves to serve and assist vulnerable people are now abusers. This is unacceptable.”
The health service has gained some bad name over claims of medical negligence.
Over the years, some of these cases have led to lawsuits against the facilities involved, with affected families demanding investigations and compensation.
In 2015, the Ghana Diaspora Women Organisation called for the immediate suspension of two doctors and nurses involved in the alleged negligence that led to the death of a patient at the Ridge Hospital.
The administering of wrong medication is believed to have contributed to the death of Madam Esther Sosuh, the wife of Dr. Emmanuel Kuto, who is the Director of the Institute of Languages.
Dr. Kuto’s wife, aged 48-years-old, had been diagnosed with a hernia and was receiving treatment after checking into the hospital.
The group in a statement complained that “simply too many lives are lost through gross negligence, and enough is now enough.”
It thus demanded that the Ghana Health Service Director-General and the Director of Ridge Hospital “immediately suspend the two doctors and nurses involved in this alleged matter, as we believe their behaviour was unethical of the medical profession.”
37 Military Hospital slapped with over GH¢1M for woman’s death in childbirth
In a similar case of medical negligence, the 37 Military Hospital was in July this year, slapped with GH¢1,075,000 in damages for the negligent death of a 27-year-old woman during childbirth in November 2015.
The woman, Helena Brema Nyamekye, who was a Ph.D. student at the University of Ghana at the time of the incident, is said to have opted for a caesarean section as her preferred mode of childbirth.
Doctors, however, denied her the option and put her through normal labour.
