Sue Negligent Doctors; ‘Fa Ma Nyame’ Syndrome Killing Us – Christian Council

Health professionals who act negligently resulting in deaths must be made to answer for their actions rather than sweeping it under the carpet, General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG), Rev. Dr. Cyril Fayose, has said.

The cleric, who lost a nephew recently at a hospital, told Class91.3FM’s Executive Breakfast Show on Wednesday, 11 July 2018 that even Christians who fall victim to medical negligence must seek redress in court.

Asked by show host, Moro Awudu, if he will consider legal action over such matters, the senior cleric of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, Ghana, said: “If my nephew’s death is due to someone’s recklessness, the person should be punished and that may also include going through the legal course and that sometimes includes more than the doctor involved, it includes the whole system”.

He continued: “I believe in correcting the system and that may include taking legal action, I don’t have a problem with that at all because if that will save the next person from dying that is a good thing”.

According to him, “God is a God of order. God does not just do things [anyhow]. So, we, as a people, must learn to be orderly. God is not an erratic God and I believe medical systems were also put in place by this same God to help us. So, if you are part of that system, you must play your role so that you do what you are expected to do to help the people who come to you for help.

“I will not go for ‘fa ma Nyame’ or ‘it is God who gave and God who has taken’. Yes, in certain instances we can say that when all that we can do as a people, as a health system, as a doctor, as a nurse and even as pastors we have said all the prayers, we have done everything that we could do and the person still passes away then we can say that, yes, ‘It is the Lord who gave this person to us and the Lord has taken His thing back’”.

The newly-elected General Secretary of CCG also entreated health authorities in the country to organise regular training for the public to equip citizens with basic skills in First Aid and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

“There should be a system where even the ordinary person at home can provide some kind of assistance even before getting to the hospital,” he emphasised, adding: “When I was studying outside this country (Ghana), as a student we were all given training in CPR. That is something we don’t do in this country so at the least opportunity anyone of us could die.”

He said accidents occur in the country and “a number of cases that need not end up in deaths end up in deaths because there is no immediate help”.

“So, I think our health system should step up the game a bit and help not only the health system itself but even the citizenry in how to give First Aid,” he stated.

Source: ClassFMonline