The Accident and Emergency Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital could be shut down if doctors carry out a threat to withdraw their services over claims of poor preparedness to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
The Doctors at Ghana’s premier hospitals have written to their heads in a memo complaining that it was dangerous for a sideward at the department to be used as a coronavirus isolation centre while they lack Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
“Firstly, the pandemic, an existential threat to us, you will agree, has to be handled with decisiveness and transparency. It is based on this that, we are aghast at the actions or inactions taken before, during and after the case had been confirmed,” the said in the memo to the heads of the department.
The doctors say the management of the department that has woefully failed woefully to provide adequate protection for the staff and as such, they are left with little choice than to resort to protecting themselves in the face of present danger posed by Covid-19.
“We will like to state, with no fear of equivocation that, if these measures are not put in place, we will be forced to stop attending to patients to the endangerment of the patients, ourselves, our loved ones, and Ghana as a whole,” the doctors threatened in the memo.
They subsequently made the following demands:
The doctors are making the following demands:
1. Provision of appropriate PPEs; including N-95 face masks
2. Provision of a proper isolation unit for suspected cases in lieu of the current sideward we use at ‘yellow’
3. Expediting the testing of all staff of the department for SARS-Cov2
4. Creating clear channels of communication between management and the staff of the department; in order to prevent the events surrounding the first confirmed case from happening again.
5. The immediate closure of the ER for fumigation.
Ghana’s coronavirus situation
Nine more coronavirus cases have been recorded in Ghana, bringing the total to 204.
All the new cases were recorded in the Greater Accra Region.
The Ghana Health Service in its web updates said, four of the new cases have no travel history but are contacts of confirmed cases.
One returned to Ghana from Benin within the past 14 days.
The number of regions reporting cases remains five – Greater Accra, Ashanti, Northern, Upper West and Eastern.
With 183 cases, Greater Accra has the highest infections. The Northern region has 10, Ashanti, 9, Upper West, 1 and Eastern, 1.