Komfo Anokye Hospital Petitions IGP

The management of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) has formally petitioned the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Paul Tawiah Quaye, to expedite action on investigations into the unprovoked attack on medical officers and security guards at the hospital by a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP Adjei Nimo, and five other policemen in mufti. The other policemen who assaulted the medical officers and the security guards have been identified as Detective Corporal Kennedy Owusu, Lance Corporal James Addy, Detective Corporal Kennedy Yeboah, General Constable Samuel Adu and Lance Corporal Jacob Namlor. A source close to the hospital authorities told the Daily Graphic that the Chief Executive of the hospital, Professor Ohene Adjei, had also travelled to Accra to brief the Health Minister on the issue and how it affected medical care at the hospital. The source said the petition to the IGP was to enable the police hierarchy to appreciate the magnitude of the unprofessional conduct of DSP Nimo and his cohorts and initiate concrete steps to bring them to order to prevent future occurrences. Last Saturday, DSP Nimo and the five policemen allegedly invaded the Accident and Emergency Ward of KATH and assaulted medical officers on duty in their attempt to arrest a security guard who had allegedly confronted them. They also allegedly attacked a security guard, identified as Eric Kankam, who was duty at the Barracks gate, tearing his uniform into shreds and leaving him with bruises and swollen cheeks. Their action created a state of pandemonium at the hospital, causing the medical officers to abandon patients who were receiving emergency medical care. In the process, a 38-year-old woman receiving medical care at the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital died. Meanwhile, the IGP has formally written to the KATH administrators to condemn the action of the policemen involved in the assault and given the assurance to conduct thorough investigations into the circumstances leading to the assault and the effects it created. The Ashanti Regional Police Commander, DCOP Patrick Timbilla, said he personally handed over the letter from the IGP to the KATH administrators. He said the IGP also stated in the letter that he would not spare any of the policemen involved in the case if they were found culpable. DCOP Timbilla also expressed his unqualified apology to the members of staff of KATH and appealed to them to go about their normal duties to enhance health care for their clients. In another development, the Police Intelligence and Professional Standard (PIPS) Unit has completed about 80 per cent of investigations into the alleged assault by DSP Nimo and the five policemen. Chief Superintendent Okyere Darko, who is in charge of the PIPS in the Ashanti Region, told the Daily Graphic that he had interviewed all the policemen involved, the victims at the hospital, as well as the witnesses. �I am on course and likely to submit the report very soon,� he said.