Ridge Hosp: Medical Director Dismisses Claims Of Negligence

The Medical Director of Ridge Hospital, Dr. Thomas Anaba has dismissed the claims by a Good Samaritan, Mardey, that she was ignored by nurses on duty Sunday when she rushed an injured lady to the hospital.

He said the nurses on the night shift attended to the injured lady and realized she was not in need of urgent attention so they left her to attend to emergency cases.

On March 6, Mardey called into Joy FM's Super Morning Show, and recounted the maltreatment she suffered at the hands of nurses at the Ridge hospital.

According to her, she chanced upon a lady - obviously a victim of a hit-and-run vehicle - on the Farrar Avenue in Adabraka at Accra, Sunday at 10:30 GMT.

She rushed to the Adabraka Police Station to report the accident. When she returned to the scene, the injured lady was still lying there bleeding badly.

Mardey explained with the help of a police officer, she picked the injured lady in the trunk of her vehicle and drove off to the Ridge Hospital.

“We got there, I rushed in to go and tell a nurse that we got somebody with massive head injuries; she is not conscious. The woman came, looked at the [injured] woman and because I think she [injured woman] was not well dressed – maybe she looked homeless – the woman (the nurse) looked at the [injured] woman and went back in,” she said.

The nurses on duty, she insisted, failed to attend to the woman and all attempts to get an explanation from them were met with fierce arguments.

However, Dr. Anaba said contrary to Mardey’s account, the nurses conducted triaging on the injured woman - a medical process for sorting injured people into groups based on their medical needs, and realized her situation did not require emergency treatment.

He said there were two nurses on the night shift, and they were both busy attending to two other patients who suffered dog and snake bites.

He explained that the nurse who went to see the accident victim brought by Mardey was the person who was trying to stop the bleeding in the patient who suffered the snake bite.

The Medical Director maintained his investigations revealed that Mardey's accounts were not supported by the facts of what happened.

He told Joy FM's Super Morning Show Wednesday, Mardey's narration of events couldn't possibly happen at the hospital.

But this infuriated Mardey who said to the extent that she was not contacted in the alleged investigation conducted by the hospital, the probe was one-sided.

"If you are doing any investigation and you only contact your staff that is a one-sided, biased investigation. So that investigation is bogus," she said.

Dr. Anaba berated her for rushing the issue to Joy FM when she could have contacted management of the hospital with her grievances.

He also said contrary to Mardey's account there were only two official nurses on duty and they were busy.

He, however, commended Mardey for being a Good Samaritan and said the nurses did what they were expected to do under the circumstance.