Family paid bribe for bed at Korle Bu

Accra, Dec. 6, GNA - An anti-corruption official at the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) on Thursday stunned participants at a function on Human Rights Week when he disclosed that his family succumbed to pressure and manoeuvring at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and paid a bribe of 30 GH cedis (300,000.00 cedis) to obtain a bed for him.

Speaking on "Patient Expectation of Health Services," at the on-going Human Rights week being organised by CHRAJ, Mr Charles Anyamdo told the hushed audience that his wife and brother paid the bribe for him to be attended to at the government Hospital.


"The nurses at Korle Bu alleged that there was no bed, but if I offered 'something', they would try and get me one. I refused but my wife and brother could not bear the frustration and as a result of the pains I was going through, they went ahead and paid. I was immediately offered a VVIP bed," Mr Anyamdo stated to expose the level of corruption at health centres.


The Human Rights Week is on the general theme: "Human Rights and Social Justice in Ghana@50: Have we come of Age?" It is a period dedicated to the celebration of freedom and justice, and the nation's aspiration to create those conditions that most contribute to human flourishing.


Mr Anyamdo said he also served on a Committee of Enquiry set-up by the Ministry of Health to investigate the disappearance of a baby at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.


He said the investigation established falsehood and fabrication of facts by nurses at the maternity department of the Hospital and mortuary attendants.

He said the Committee, among other recommendations, said the mortuary attendants should be prosecuted and nurses at the Maternity Department transferred. The hospital was asked to provide the baby, dead or alive, and a mortuary refrigerator at the Maternity Department. Mr Anyamdo also narrated a horrifying case that CHRAJ investigated at Tema General Hospital where the carelessness of the medical staff - nurses and doctors - led to the death of a pregnant woman and the baby. The investigations established enough grounds for prosecution and the Court awarded 48 million cedis damages against the Hospital. Speaking on; "How to Make Healthcare Accessible to All," Mr Richard Quayson, a Deputy CHRAJ Commissioner, said access to safe and potable water, adequate sanitation, hygienic conditions of living and clean environment were enshrined under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.


Other rights are access to health-related education and information, including education on sexual and reproductive health and access to good medical care and attention.


Mr Quayson explained that every individual - woman, man, youth or child - therefore had the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, without discrimination of any kind. "Enjoyment of the human right to health is vital to all aspects of a person's life and well-being, and it is crucial to the realization of many other fundamental human rights and freedoms."


He said it was obligatory for every state to respect, protect and fulfil health rights of its citizenry.


It requires countries to make efforts to minimize risk to health and take all necessary measures to prevent third parties from infringing on citizens' health rights, provide relevant services to enable individuals and communities to enjoy the right to health and refrain from undertaking actions that inhibit or interfere with peoples' ability to enjoy the right to health.