NATO forces maul critics of Tamale Hospital CEO

A group calling itself the NATO forces is raising alarm over the rate at which lands belonging to the Tamale Teaching Hospital is being encroached upon.

The group in a press statement said over 50 houses have been built on the lands and called on the appropriate authorities to take action.

The group among other things applauded the acting CEO of the hospital Dr. Prosper Akanbong for taking steps to fight corruption in the hospital.

The following is the full statement
PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE TRUE STATE OF AFFAIRS AT TAMALE TEACHING HOSPITAL (TTH)

Good morning to you all press men and women herein assembled. I have the privilege to welcome you all on behalf of the NATO FORCES to this all important press conference.

We have followed with keen interest the several distortions and varied discussions on our airwaves about the Tamale Teaching Hospital and happenings around it. It is a truism that the Tamale Teaching Hospital is the foremost referral center for healthcare in the three northern regions and the northern parts of Brong Ahafo and Volta regions and covers parts of our neighbouring countries (i.e. Togo, Burkina Faso and La Cote d'Ivoire), the more reason why the hospital is dear to everyone and attracts lots of attention from people of all walks of life.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our profound gratitude to the ruling National Democratic Congress (N.D.C) Government for the expansion works, rehabilitation and the installation of ultra-modern medical and office equipment at the Tamale Teaching Hospital which has facilitated the training of medical students of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University for Development Studies (UDS). It is our hope that the phase II of the project will soon start to ease the pressure on the existing limited infrastructure.

Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media and the public, it is our desire to present to you accurate, informed, intelligent and true state of affairs at the Tamale Teaching Hospital which has been in the news lately. Before we invited you to this press conference, we toured the hospital and asked the appropriate  people the exact questions and also undertook an independent analysis and checks on the several and numerous allegations of corruption, mismanagement and misappropriation of resources belonging to the hospital. In reality, our checks revealed that the hospital has been administered far better now than ever before. We found that there was uninterrupted flow of water to all the wards, sufficient medical and non-medical supplies and a functional laboratory where many laboratory investigations or tests were being carried out. Once more, there were more than enough of basic drugs such as Cytotec, Vitamin K, Oxytocics and basic logistics including catheters, hand gloves and A4 sheets. Caesarian Sections are being performed constantly and consistently at the Operating Theater of the Obstetrics ward. All the claims about the non-availability of one thing or the other are groundless, premised on mischief, dubious and only aimed at throwing dust into the eyes of the good people of Tamale and beyond. Of course HAMS (Hospital Administration Management Software) is still in place and in used and no contract has been awarded to Vasudhaika to replace HAMS.

We were overwhelmed by the level of improvement at the hospital within such a short period of the Acting CEO (Dr. Prosper Akanbong) in office. Some groups of people who are badly informed, uninspiring, misguided and unacquainted have constituted themselves into a rebel group driven by parochial, self-seeking and insatiable desire for power, authority and control and are poised to foment trouble, create chaos and anarchy and deprive the people of the north and beyond access to quality health care.  It is an undeniable fact that these groups for do not have any reputation to protect and for this reason think any other person is just like them. These people are simply up to mischief and in one way or the other, their actions and inactions ought to go unnoticed.

Indeed, members of the media present, we would be unrealistic to say the Tamale Teaching Hospital is a perfect system, since no such systems exist anywhere. It is definite that the attitudes of some of the staff of the hospital are not good and must be condemned in no uncertain terms by all well-meaning persons irrespective of your creed, colour or political affiliation. There has been occasional shortage of some essential resources but the downtimes have been reduced drastically since the Acting CEO (Dr. Prosper Akanbong) assumed office.

Ladies and gentlemen of the press, comrades, it is untrue that some components of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) have been taken away to repair those of Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) and Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH). Our checks again revealed that the MRI machine has been fully installed and yet to be handed over by the Contractor to the hospital.

In relation to the Acting Chief Executive, Dr. Prosper Akanbong, our investigations revealed that he has been the Medical Director of the Tamale Teaching Hospital since 2007. He was the Medical Director under Dr. Daniel Tapang, a former Chief Executive and Dr. Ken Sagoe, the immediate past Chief Executive from 2008 till he became Acting Chief Executive upon the compulsory retirement of Dr. Ken Sagoe in September 2013. Dr. Prosper Akanbong is one of the first specialists who accepted posting to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and in fact the ONLY PHYSICIAN SPECIALIST in the three northern regions until recently. He also doubled as the Head of Department of Internal Medicine of both the Tamale Teaching Hospital and the UDS Medical School and has always acted as the CEO in the stead of the former chief executives. We must add that he is a Senior Lecturer at the Medical School and people who know well would attest to the fact that the Senior Lecturer position in academia is no mean a position. Again, the question we want to ask is that where were the so-called Senior Specialists and Consultants when he accepted posting to the Tamale Teaching Hospital? Were they in Ghana or out of Ghana? If they were in Ghana, why were they not in Tamale earlier? Indeed our checks revealed that the rots or better still the malfeasance cited by the accusers of the Acting CEO is predominant in the departments of the so-called Consultants. We know them but we are withholding their names for now and our only advise to them is to stop what they are doing or else they would force us to publish their names, departments as well as their illegal activities.  We know they are doing all of these out of sheer jealousy, envy and greed triggered by the fact that they are no longer able to engage in their nefarious and shocking bad deeds on which they have lived and survived all this while. No wonder the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) has risen from GHC400,000.00 to GHC700,000.00 in just three months of Dr. Akanbong's able management. Why are they scared by the systems put in place to ensure that sanity prevails for the betterment of the patients?

Ladies and gentlemen, for an Acting CEO to move the revenue generation of a hospital from GHC400, 000.00 per month to GHC700, 000.00 per month in three months is a monumental success worthy of celebration. Not only that, he has also saved the hospital from spending close to GHC30, 000.00 every month on water and improved the security situation in the hospital. All of these have boosted the patients' confidence in the hospital. In order to encourage more people to do what he has done and continue to do so, we believe such a person deserves commendation and recommendation and never condemnation. We wish to state categorically and plainly that Dr. Prosper Akanbong, Acting Chief Executive of the Tamale Teaching Hospital has done tremendously well that we would not sit back and allow any group of miscreants to impede the pace of progress he has so far chalked.

Our investigations also revealed that the construction of the fence wall at the western end of the hospital land surrounded by Builpela has become very important now than ever. Why do we say so? The rate of encroachment is beyond any constructive mind's comprehension. The number of houses built on the hospital land is now more than fifty (50) as against three (3) in 2012. Do we want the whole land to be taken over by encroachers before we make any intervention? This will definitely not be a wise decision and for this reason the fence wall must be built and built now to save the rest of the land. We have cited evidence to the effect that the Town and Country Planning Department actually wrote to the hospital requesting the management to construct the wall before it becomes too late, for they will not be involved in any demolition exercise in future. We like to quote from the letter ''it is therefore important that prompt action is taken instead of the 'wait and see' attitude which creates the associated security challenges when such developments assume permanent status and become difficult to remove'' on quote. It is said that to be forewarned is to be forearmed. Therefore, the building of the fence wall must be given the utmost priority that it deserves. Our checks indicate that the plan to build the wall was subjected to competitive bidding and the tenders were opened on Monday, 6th January, 2014. In fact the contract is yet to be awarded. The fence wall is to be funded with Internally Generated Fund (IGF) of the hospital.

We cannot end this press conference without expressing our appreciation to the Minister of Health, Honourable Sherry Ayitey for her hard work at the ministry and the support she has given to the Tamale Teaching Hospital which in no doubt has lessened their financial burden. We want to assure the Minister that documents cited from the hospital attest to the fact that the GH¢2.8M bailout was judiciously used for the purpose it was intended. In fact our independent checks revealed that all the suppliers to the hospital were paid from the GH¢2.8m.

We also want to thank the Northern Regional Minister Hon. Bid Zieden for his love passion for peace in the region. Thus nothing should be done to disturb the peace in the region for whatsoever reason. We implore the Regional Minister to quickly make an intervention to sustain the industrial peace and harmony currently enjoyed in the hospital.

Fellow countrymen, the Tamale Teaching Hospital Board under the able leadership of the Chairman, Dr. Iddrisu Mutawakilu has guarded the completion of the first phase of expansion and rehabilitation of the hospital which is now awaiting commissioning. Under his leadership, negotiations are well advanced for the second phase to commence. So it is therefore inappropriate, a bit regrettable for some foul-mouthed section of the Changni Youth parliament to malign and impugn his hard earned reputation and integrity for cheap propaganda.

Press men and women herein gathered, we end this conference by calling on our revered traditional and political leaders in all the three northern regions to continue to support the Tamale Teaching Hospital and help bring the needed development to the hospital especially the second phase of the expansion works.

In the light of all the achievements and successes chalked by the Hospital Board and the Acting CEO, Dr. Prosper Akanbong who has been in office for just three months, we urge the appropriate authority to go ahead and confirm him as the substantive CEO to ensure continuity of the good works.

Lastly, we wish to thank you all for coming and wish you will be the ambassadors for change, progress and development.

Long live Ghana! Long live Northern Region! Long live TTH.

…………………………
ABU. MUHAISIM
SPOKESPERSON.
0203522933.