The Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Professor Mike Ocquaye has tasked parliamentarians to formulate a new law that will make it criminal for health personnel to turn away patients over lack of beds.
The Speaker indicated that it was wrong for medical practitioners to refuse to attend to a patient in an emergency situation.
He added and charged the Health Committee of Parliament to quickly look into the matter and come out with a new law even if it is by a private member’s motion.
The crusade against the “no bed syndrome” comes days after a 70-year-old man, Mr. Anthony Opoku Acheampong died at the LEKMA Hospital at Teshie in Accra when he was refused admission to seven other public health facilities.
The death of the 70-year-old has triggered a campaign for a revolution in the country’s health care delivery with Members of Parliament leading it.
Following the call for the criminalising of the ‘no bed’ excuse, the Honourable Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Joseph Kpemka described such situations by hospitals as “real and not cosmetic.”
The Deputy Attorney General who doubles as the Honourable MP for Tempane lost his wife his wife in 2016 under similar circumstances having driven her to a number of public health facilities in the capital.
The Honourable Member of Parliament for Ledzokuku, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, brought the issue of “no bed” syndrome to light when he presented a statement on the floor of Parliament, describing the horrible experience some patients with emergency cases go through when taken to health facilities to seek medical attention.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Nsiah-Asare has called for an investigation into the circumstances under which the 70-year-old died.
Source: GhanaJustice/S.Ayisi
