The Korle Bu Senior Staff Association (KOSSA), has dismissed suggestions that staff are ‘sabotaging’ operations at the hospital.
There have been claims that staff at the hospital deliberately deny patients services that the facility is supposed to offer, and instead directing them to private institutions which they own.
[contextly_sidebar id=”60VQ3BpoQ2waVO4YUaZMDC4jS6KzfIHj”]The President of the Association, Charles Offei Palm, speaking on Eyewitness News on Monday, accused past executives of the hospital whom he claimed presided over corruption during their tenures, of trying to push the blame on the staff of the hospital.
“It’s a bad perception about us and that’s not right. These are being peddled by failed CEOs and failed Board Chairmen who in their zeal to justify their wrongdoing and corruption, tend to put the blame on staff,” he said.
“What was your role when you were CEO and Board Chairman? They are just noises being put out to the media to malign hardworking staff. Look at the number of staff we have and the work that we do, nobody talks about that.”
He explained that, the patients were directed to other facilities because the drugs they needed were not immediately available at the hospital.
He pointed to the fact that, instead of stocking up on the drugs for the hospital, officials instead procured expensive cars among others.
“We [told management] that the lab and pharmacy were collapsing, people would come in the middle of the night, but they wouldn’t get the drugs they need. If the management doesn’t provide the drugs, I have to show the patient where they can get it. That, to me is providing pharmaceutical care,” he said in defence of the staff.
“Where there have been instances where the services have not been provided, the patient must go out and get those services. That is different from when services are available, but the patients are redirected, which isn’t right. If you are in a hospital and you see people buying luxury cars and taking fat allowances but common drugs aren’t available, it gives you the power to fight corruption.”
On the warpath again
KOSSA has had several run-ins with the previous management of the hospital in recent years.
Last April, Charles Offei Palm was interdicted by the management of the hospital for “flouting the hospital’s media policy” by granting an interview to an Accra based radio station.
Prior to that, KOSSA sued the management of the hospital for initiating processes to sanction five of its members for accusing the management of corruption and mismanagement.
The members of the Association resorted to the Accra High Court to ask the court to among others, declare disciplinary procedures against them null and void.
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By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana