Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Justice Yankson, has asked the Minister of Finance to as a matter of urgency, provide the financial clearance to newly-trained doctors in order for them to be engaged by the management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH).
For the lack of adequate doctors, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in the Ashanti Region has suspended new emergency admissions.
This was contained in an internal memo issued by the directorate of surgery to the Chief Executive Officer of the hospital.
The decision was arrived at following an emergency meeting convened to review the impact of the shortage on the hospital’s ability to deliver quality health care to patients.
The hospital will, however, continue to care for the over 250 patients currently on admission.
“Considering our current staff strength, we are of the opinion that further admissions will endanger the lives of patients and impede the provision of quality care. We would like to put on record that this problem was anticipated by all residents in the hospital and management was notified in writing two weeks ago. Unfortunately, management is yet to communicate a response. This problem has been recurring for the past 7 years and we hope an appropriate action is taken to resolve this issue permanently,” the surgery directorate said.
Speaking in relation to this development in an interview with Cass 91.3FM’s Valentina Ofori-Afriyie on Thursday, September 14 Dr Yankson said: “We are worried because we think that the powers that be are not acting swiftly on this matter. We have engaged the Ministry of Finance and the Management of Komfo Anokye to help address this situation.
“If you look at what is happening, the baseline is that we need a replacement for these almost 150 young doctors who have finished their duties with Komfo Anokye and now are out. That has created a vacuum.
“What we need now as a solution is to get the next batch quickly in place so that they can continue from where their colleague seniors left off and that will mean they will have to get their financial clearance with immediate effect and this is what we (GMA) have been working on meeting with the Ministries of Health and Finance as well as Komfo Anokye management to ensure that this is done quickly to bring a an end to this situation.”
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