The Member of Parliament for North Tongu has demanded the immediate summoning of the Board and Management of the Winneba Trauma and Specialist Hospital and the Ministry of Health over the alleged abandonment of a patient in a bush at Gomoa Ojobi in the Central Region.
Pictures emerged on social media on Thursday, purportedly showing a woman wrapped in sheets and left in a bush.
Unconfirmed reports suggest she has died after being allegedly abandoned in the bush by hospital authorities.
Addressing Parliament on Friday Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said, “There is a matter that I was hit with on national television this morning, and I am sure the Majority Leader will be concerned because it happened in his constituency.”
“It has been reported that doctors and nurses at the Winneba Government Hospital 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.”
“This is the height of inhumanity and Parliament should take an interest, and we have to summon the Health Minister, the Ghana Health Service, and the Board and Management of the Winneba Government Hospital.”
“We have to conduct an urgent probe into this matter and this negligence, abuse of the 1992 Constitution, and the gross violation of the Hippocratic oath of our doctors cannot be accepted,” he stressed.
Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin in response expressed concern over the development.
“The institution concerned has a primary mandate, they have indicated that they have instituted an investigation. I hold a humble view that we allow them to do their work, get their report published, and the necessary sanctions meted out, and if Parliament would want to do that, we can. “
The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin was saddened by the story.
“It is so heart-wrenching. In fact, when I read and viewed on TV what happened, I got so sad that as a country, we have gone that low. It should not happen, but these are allegations. We should allow the investigation by the appropriate authorities, and if we feel that justice has not been done, we will exercise our oversight responsibility and take it on,” he assured.