Cardio Strike Claims One Life

The first day of the strike action by staff of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, yesterday took its toll when a foreigner died after she was refused admission to the hospital.

Medical attendants who sent the woman to the centre at around 8 a.m. in an ambulance with the inscription ‘West African Rescue Association’, tried to resuscitate her in the ambulance but were not successful.

Staff at the centre effected their threat to embark on an indefinite strike action if the head of the centre, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, was not reinstated.

A note posted on the front door post of the Centre said: “Attention: The Cardiothoracic Centre is not providing services to the public until further notice. We will inform the public when the Centre is open. Thanks for your co-operation”.

The centre currently has about 20 patients on admission and also attends to over a hundred people in its specialised clinics which it operates every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

A crucial in-house meeting between the staff at the centre and the Board Chairman of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Prof. Seth Aryeetey, and the Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Prof. Nii Otu Nartey, was said to have ended in a stalemate as the staff refused to go back to work.

When the Daily Graphic got to the hospital at around 9 a.m., patients from other hospitals who had been referred there were turned away as the hospital refused to take in any new admissions.

A middle-aged woman, Ms Dinah Eyison, in an interview said she brought her 32-year-old brother with a heart condition with referral from the Trust Hospital and was asked to go for some laboratory tests and bring the report on Monday, but when they got to the hospital they were refused admission.

Clad in red armbands some nurses and supporting staff at the centre were seen taking care of people who were already on admission.

At a press briefing by doctors at the centre and addressed by Dr Frank Edwin, a cardiothoracic surgeon, they said the centre had suspended all elective operations and clinics following the termination of the appointment of its Founder and Director, Prof. Frimpong Boateng.

This, they said, had become necessary as a result of general agitation of staff at the centre which was deemed unsafe for patient care.

The statement, signed by 17 doctors and specialists at the hospital, said, “Work grounded to a halt the morning of Friday, August 25, 2011 when the news broke at the Cardiothoracic Centre”.

Dr Edwin, who is the spokesperson for the doctors, said in response the staff of the centre petitioned the President, Prof. John E. A. Mills, to revoke the Health Minister’s decision.

According to them, the basis for the minister’s decision to terminate the appointment of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng is questionable as virtually all heads of departments at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital are also staff of the University of Ghana Medical School.

The statement said presently, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng was directing the next generation of leaders at the centre in an effort to expand the current facility to manage the increased national and regional demands on the centre.

The statement further argued that the Prof. single-handedly established and trained most of the current staff, motivating them to stay and work locally.

“In the light of these facts, the staff of the National Cardiothoracic Centre consider the termination of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s appointment as the Director subversive of national interest, and a disincentive to the patriotism of Ghanaians both locally and abroad,” they said.

They said while it was conceivable that the minister’s action was based on misinformation concerning the often complex inter-relationships between the workings of the Ministry of Health and the University of Ghana Medical School, the present troubled and agitative mood of the staff of the centre did not provide a safe environment for the performance of complex and dedicated heart procedure on patients.

The staff expressed the hope that the President would take urgent steps to correct the anomaly and return the centre to its previous efficient state.