Ex-police officer petitions United Nations

DSP Gyau on his hospital bed receiving dialysis treatment. (inset) DSP Daniel Gyau (rtd)

A retired Deputy Superintendent  of Police, who served Ghana and the  Ghana Police Service for 35 years, and was incapacitated while on peace keeping duty outside the country, has complained of ill treatment by the government.

DSP Daniel Kwaku Gyau (rtd), who served on various UN Peace Keeping Missions between 2001 and 2007, has petitioned the United Nations, per its Secretary General, for assistance in the payment of his Hemodialysis treatment in Ghana.

The petition, dispatched for the attention of Mr. Ban Ki-moon, was duly delivered on July 29, 2011, to Maria, a Secretary, according to the DHL.

The former police chief cannot afford a total of GH¢1,640 every month for dialysis treatment, against his present monthly pension of GH¢163.92.

He has appealed to the United nations to grant him pardon to return to the United states to continue his treatment at the Hemodialysis Centre of the Trinitas Medical Hospital in New Jersey. Such assistance, he noted, would relieve him of the payment of GH¢21,604.72 per annum in Ghana.

In the interim, the police officer has disposed of some personal properties acquired over the years to foot the bills to manage chronic kidney failure between May last year and June this year.

The petition to the UN Secretary General is a follow up to similar petitions to the Government of Ghana to assist him fund his treatment, but all to no avail. He has, as well, informed the Ghanaian former UN Secretary General, Busumuru Kofi Annan, and UN and African Union representatives in Ghana about his condition of health.

After petitioning the former Inspector general of Police (IGP), Nana Owusu Nsiah, the police administration managed a token GH¢500 in September 2010 on humanitarian grounds, saying it (police administration) had no funds for the payment of medical bills of retired officers, according to a letter dated November 15, 2010, and signed by the Director of General/Administration, COP Mrs. Joana Osei Poku.

DSP Gyau (CP.2540) was among the Ghanaian Police Contingent to United Nations Peace Keeping Mission at East Timor from February 2001 to February 2002, and served the Africa Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS) Darfur Region from May 2005 to August 2006.

The police chief complains that during his duty tour in the Darfur region, he had a forced landing with one of the mission aircraft at Kubus on the Border of Sudan and Chad on July 5, 2005, as a result of which he was diagnosed as having 'high blood pressure,' for which he received treatment by a South African medical officer until the completion of his duty tour on August 31, 2006.

According to Mr. Gyau, on his return to Ghana, he was served with terminal leave prior to   compulsory retirement.

He said while on retirement, he was not getting the needed medication to cure the high blood pressure, a situation, which necessitated his return to the US in October 2008, via a valid US visa for five years.

While on visit, he fell sick, and upon further diagnosis and laboratory tests was found to be an acute high blood pressure patient, to the extent that his kidney had been destroyed.

According to the former police officer, he decided to work to foot the huge medical bills, only to fall sick again on March 2010, resulting in his hospitalisation at the Trinitas Medical Hospital, where emergency surgery was performed on his kidney, and a catheter inserted, and scheduled for treatment three times a week.

After two months of hemodialysis treatment at the Trinitas Hospital, one Dr. Santiago Arthur recommended that the Ghana Government continue his medication, since DSP Gyau was involved in an accident while serving Ghana on peace keeping duties, and having had the kidney problem as far back as 2005.

Collaborating his claims with documents and receipts, the petitioner says he returned to Ghana in May 2010, and continued the hemodialysis treatment at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital at the cost of Gh¢140, was and later transferred to the Peace and Love Hemodialysis Treatment Centre in June 2010, because the Hemodialysis machines at the Komfo Anokye Hospital were out of use.

In spite of a request from the Director of Budget, Castle, Osu, in August 2010 to provide the government with the estimated cost of Hemodialysis treatment over 12 months at the Peace and Love Hospital, which was duly prepared by Dr. K. Amoako Atta, and submitted to the Director of Budget, nothing had come out of it.

DSP Gyau said the former Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr. Kofi Opoku Manu, intervened by directing him with a letter to the then Minister of Health, Dr. Benjamin Kumbuor, but he was moved from the Ministry before he could do anything about it.

Undaunted, DSP Gyau appealed to  the Police Council, headed by His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, to, as a matter of urgency, bail him out of financial difficulty following the payment of GH¢150 per day.

The petitioner says he has been to the Castle on invitation to meet the Chief Director to the Veep, as a result of which he was asked to furnish Castle with the price of a 'Self Administered' dialysis machine to be procured for installation in his house to continue treatment.

The pro-forma invoice obtained from EGO Medical Services Limited in Accra, a manufacturer's agent, estimating the cost of the machine at $70,640, has, since March 2011, been duly submitted to the Vice President, who has reportedly said the government cannot purchase the machine, but decided to fly DSP Gyau to the United Kingdom (UK) for a possible kidney transplant if he can find a donor, and that he (Gyau) should not fund the treatment of his  ailment from his own resources again.

Unfortunately, the retired police boss is not finding a donor for the test at Korle-Bu, which alone, cost GH¢3,500, let alone embark on the trip to the UK as directed by the Vice President.

While waiting for an eventual miracle, DSP Gyau again, petitioned the Vice President, and  attached copies of receipts of medical bills for a refund of GH¢21,275.07 to enable him fund  his treatment.

A copy of the petition and relevant documents were brought to the attention of the Secretary to President Mills, Mr. J. K. Bebaako-Mensah, who, on July 25, 2011, submitted same to the Minister of Health for the necessary action.

With tears in his eyes, DSP Gyau recalled that all nine persons with similar ailments he met at Korle-Bu on his return to Ghana in May 2010 were dead. 'My brother, is Ghana worth dying for?' he queried this reporter, wondering if this fate was what awaits the over 15,000 police   force personnel who are killing themselves for Mother Ghana.

 
From Sebastian R. Freiku, Kumasi