Criminal Doctors let Ghanaian women die - Withdrawal of emergency services: Woman dies at KATH

Source: myjoyonline.com - A woman rushed to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi has died. There were no doctors to attend to her as the stalemate between doctors and the government over their conditions of service drags on.

Luv FM’s Erastus Asare Donkor reports that the middle-aged woman was driven to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the Hospital in the Ashanti region at about 5:30 am Monday.

She spent about 20 minutes on a stretcher before being told there were no doctors to attend to her.

Her four relatives who drove her in, looked visibly distraught. Panic etched on their faces as they pondered over their next move.

A male relative leant over her on the stretcher and called her repeatedly.

He tried a few gentle slaps to initiate contact. The woman was not responding to any stimuli, Erastus told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Monday.

The four reloaded their relative into their Toyota vehicle and sped off to a private hospital.

They found one at Denyame near the Bekwai Roundabout where the patient was attended to by a nurse.

“She is gone already,” the nurse confirmed their worst fears.

Living in denial, the relatives sped off to another hospital in the hope of a different diagnosis.

Second opinion, same conclusion and what followed were tears.

Doctors of public hospitals battling government improved service conditions. They started the action by withdrawing OPD services two weeks.

While still sympathizing with Ghanaians on the impact of their strike on patients the doctors say over four decades of practice without detailed conditions of service is enough, and they can take no more empty assurances by successive governments.

A doctor explained on Joy FM's Ghana Connect last Friday that he delivered his wife, who is also a doctor in 2004 at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and was presented with a bill to pay for the delivery.

One of the doctors said in 2007 when a doctor at Korle Bu decided to ask for conditions of service; the authorities revoked his appointment by the then Korle Bu CEO.

"It is regrettable that we have come to this stage but we have been left with no choice but to go this way," they said.

Since last Friday, the Ghana Medical Association have withdrawn emergency service to press home their demand for conditions of service.

The effect of the withdrawal is most felt in places like the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Ashanti region where the largest public healthcare facilities are found.

Private clinics and hospitals have limited expertise to handle or treat complications or cases.

The doctors had withdrawn OPD service last two weeks as the first phase of their demand for an agreement on their conditions of service.

The next action is to resign en masse.