Anaesthetists Withdraw Services at TTH

Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, is unhappy at the chasing out of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the biggest hospital in the Northern region, David Zaawumya Akolbila, from office and described the behavior of the ‘Kandahar Boys’ as something that ‘defies understanding’.

Struggling for words to explain Monday’s incident, the minister told Joy News; “It beats anybody’s imagination; it looks like…and I am not pretty sure, there are some people in Tamale that should not be touched”.

The Kandahar Boys, one of the vigilante groups associated with the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) last Monday allegedly stormed the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) and walked out the CEO, accusing him of misappropriating funds.

Even though the NPP has denied the involvement of the affiliated group, it admits the ‘thugs’ are the party’s sympathisers.

Monday’s incident is only a replay of a similar incident in February 2017 when the group stormed the same hospital and walked out the then CEO, Dr. Prosper Akampong, accusing him of corruption and nepotism.

He was replaced by Akolbila in June 2017, only to be booted out after 13 months in office.

Kandahar Boys, it could be recalled, were in the news in February 2017 after they locked up the Tamale office of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), and the Youth Employment Agency (YEA).

Then in September 2017, the group was cited in the vandandalizing of proprieties of the Saganarigu District Assembly Complex where the district office of the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) was housed.

Even though the group denied attacking the place, its leadership admitted visiting the office early in the day.

Reported say the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, faced a similar act of lawlessness when he was a senior manager at the Tamale Regional Hospital.

In the latest incident, four persons who were arrested on Wednesday have been released after the police were satisfied they were not part of the unlawful interruption of the CEO’s work.

A suspect was picked up on Thursday and is believed to be the ringleader. The police are weighing up charges which could include assault and unlawful entry.

Anaesthetic services withdrawn

Meanwhile, members of the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anaesthetists (GACRA) hospital have with immediate effect withdrawn all services at the hospital.

In a letter copied to key health stakeholders in the Northern region, the GACRA is said it cannot continue to provide anaesthesia services in the hospitals until matters involving the forceful removal of the hospital’s CEO is properly resolved.

They are therefore requesting that the CEO be restored and perpetrators of the said act arrested.