Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Member of Parliament for North Tongu Constituency, has urged Parliament to summon the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital’s board and management, along with the Ministry of Health, to investigate and explain the alleged abandonment of a patient in a bush, leading to her untimely demise.
Ablakwa called for prompt and decisive action, demanding a thorough investigation and accountability for those responsible, to ensure justice for the victim and prevent such egregious incidents from recurring in the future.
The victim was allegedly left to die in a remote bush at Gomoa Ojobi in the Central Region, in a shocking and inhumane act of abandonment.
The deceased, an elderly woman, had been battling dementia or a related mental health condition, which had significantly impacted her cognitive and physical abilities, leading to her vulnerability and tragic outcome.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa condemned the incident as “the height of inhumanity” and urged parliament to take a keen interest in the matter, ensuring a thorough investigation and appropriate action.
Eyewitnesses in the community have come forward alleging that an ambulance from the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba was responsible for abandoning the woman, according to multiple reports.
On Friday, June 14, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa took to the Parliament floor, vehemently denouncing the incident and demanding that the Health Minister, the Ghana Health Service, and the board and management of the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital appear before the House and provide a detailed account of the circumstances surrounding the abandonment of the patient.
“It has been reported that doctors and nurses at the Winneba Government just threw out a patient who had an accident because they couldn’t locate her family. They just took her in an ambulance and went and dumped her in the bush and she died after three days.”
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
The MP emphasized that all parties involved must be held accountable for their actions and take full responsibility for their roles in the unfortunate incident.
GHS Launches Probe Into Patient Abandonment Incident
Meanwhile, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) initiated a thorough inquiry into the alleged incident, committing to unravel the facts, assign accountability, and implement corrective measures to prevent such occurrences in the future.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has assured that it will conduct a thorough investigation into the matter, adhering to established protocols and procedures in the public service, to determine the facts and take requisite disciplinary action(s) as warranted.
“The attention of the leadership of the Ghana Health Service has been drawn to a media story about a patient allegedly abandoned in a bush at Gomoa Ojobi in the Central Region. According to the story, it is alleged that the said patient was on admission at the Trauma and Specialist Hospital in Winneba, and after her relatives had failed to show up, she was conveyed in the hospital’s ambulance and left in a wheelchair at Ojobi where she claimed to be her hometown, and was later found dead”.
Ghana Health Service
The Service urged the public to remain calm, promising that anyone implicated in this disturbing incident will be held accountable and subjected to stringent disciplinary measures, as outlined in the Service’s Code of Conduct, to ensure justice and maintain public trust.
However, the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital offered a different narrative, stating that the woman’s family had declined to discharge her from the facility for several months, despite efforts to hand her over, leading to the hospital’s decision to take the action it did.
The hospital additionally explained that the woman had developed a mental health condition, which was causing disruptions to their operations and posing challenges to their ability to provide adequate care to other patients, necessitating their decision to transfer her to a more suitable facility.
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