Ghana’s Parliament is set to enact an Emergency Care Law to cater for what the Speaker of Parliament describes as needless deaths of accident victims at health facilities across the country.
Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, the Speaker, who is calling for the law says it would help to hold negligent health workers accountable. It is also expected to address what he termed as the recurrent misconduct within Ghana’s healthcare system.
“There are many examples of these needless deaths in this country and the same people, when you see them working outside, their attitude is different, which means that there is something wrong here,” he said.
The demise of a 29-year-old engineer, Charles Ammisah, an employee of Promasidor Ghana Limited, who was involved in a hit-and-run accident on February 6 this year, brought about the issue, after the matter was raised on the floor by the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin.
Mr. Amissah died after being denied emergency care by three hospitals –Ridge Hospital, Police Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital –citing lack of beds to admit him.
He was involved in a hit-and-run accident at the Circle Overpass in Accra and later died after the above mentioned facilities allegedly denied him emergency care.
The Speaker has also directed the Health Committee of the House to examine the reports from investigations by the Ministry of Health and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and to interrogate their findings thoroughly.
According to him, the death of Mr. Amissah has become a matter of concern and must not be left with the hospitals involved and the Ministry alone.
“We have to take control and we need to enquire further into the matter and we need to hold people accountable. This is one of the needless deaths we have experienced in this country.
“At the end of the day, the Minister of Health, together with the committee, will have to come before this House and then we can take that opportunity to legislate on the matter and try to bring finality to these needless deaths in our country,” the Speaker reiterated.
Call for probe and sanctions
Citing Article 103 of the 1992 Constitution, Mr Afenyo-Markin said Parliament had a constitutional duty to investigate matters of public importance and expose inefficiency and maladministration.
He called for the Health Committee to be immediately empowered, under the Speaker’s directive, to summon the Chief Executive Officers and Heads of Emergency Units of the three hospitals involved.
He further urged the committee to demand the production of triage logs, duty rosters and bed occupancy records for the night Mr. Ammisah died, and to determine whether the 2018 Ghana Health Service directive prohibiting the denial of emergency care was breached.
“If misconduct is found, sanctions must follow and if negligence is proven, prosecution must follow. If a systematic failure is identified, comprehensive reform must follow,” he said.
Afenyo-Markin added that: “If a young man can be carried from one public hospital to another, refused at every door until he dies, then the social contract is broken and none of us is safe.”
“Not the rich, not the poor, not the politician, not the ordinary man on the streets; the death of Charles Ammisah must force this nation to change, as human life cannot be subordinated to administrative convenience.
“Emergency cannot be optical and our hospitals do not have the moral or legal discretion to abandon the dying,” he added.
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Management suspends doctors & nurses for failing to treat dying engineer
