Korle Bu Cardio unit shuts down as doctors attend funeral- Patient claims

A relative to a dialysis patient is alleging doctors at the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital shut the unit to attend a funeral, Saturday, a claim hospital authorities have denied.

Sarah who sent her relative to the hospital last Saturday told Joy FM's Super Morning Show Monday, they had to return home to endure the excruciating discomfort suffered by her relative just because the unit had been closed down.

"He was vomiting, vomiting the whole night because of the toxins in him" she said and wondered why an important healthcare service could be unavailable because of a funeral," Sarah narrated.

The medical officers had arranged to attend the funeral of a mother of one of the medical specialists who is also the Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCTC) Dr. Lawrence Agyemang Siriboe.

Dr. Agyeman Siriboe whose mother's funeral occasioned what the patient said was the day-long shut down of services explained that arrangements had been put in place to address the possibility of emergencies.

He challenged the claim that the unit was closed down explaining that it is not possible for the dialysis center to be closed down on the basis of his mother's funeral.

He however explained that dialysis treatment which was usually done on Saturdays was moved to Sunday because of the funeral.

To address the inconvenience, patients scheduled for treatment for Saturday were notified to come on Sunday as the care was not urgent.

According to him, "there were personnel on call if there is an emergency" but the emergency came in the form of Sarah's relative who found no one at the unit to attend to.

On a normal day, she said, you could find patients waiting for treatment but not last Saturday.

Dr. Siriboe apologised to the victim for the inconvenience caused but was quick to add that the patient recieved treatment on Sunday.

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