Hannah Bissiw leads NDC demo to Korle Bu

A former Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture under the erstwhile John Mahama administration, Dr. Hannah Bissiw, last week Friday, led a demonstration dubbed ‘Value for life campaign’ to speak against inadequate facilities at the nation’s premier hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH).

The demonstrators marched to the KBTH administration to present a petition to the management of the hospital.

The demonstrators carried placards which read, “Korle Bu CT scan not working”, ” Save Korle Bu, get CT scan”, “Value life!”, “Let’s stop, no bed syndrome”, “Stop plastic chairs services”, and “A Teaching Hospital without CT scan?”.

Others are “Great staff, poor equipment”, “We don’t want to die!”, “Who is responsible?”, “Mothers are dying, children are dying”, “We need more beds”, “More ambulances than 275 party cars”, and “Bring back CT scan”.

Dr. Hannah Bissiw told journalists after presenting the petition that the march was necessitated by malfunctioning CT scan equipment at the hospital over the past six months.

According to her, patients are not getting the best of treatment from the facility that was supposed to be the last resort for health care in the country.

She said the CT scan at the facility was not functioning, and that patients were being turned away as a result. She argued that every Ghanaian should have access to quality healthcare, and that the government has no excuse to deny them this right.

The former Deputy Minister noted that the current situation, where patients are receiving treatment on plastic chairs instead of lying on beds, was not the best, and called for an immediate solution to the problem.

She further told the journalists that the incident that led to the passing away of a 70-year-old man should not be repeated in future.

In response to the petition, Mustapha Salifu, Public Relations Officer of the KBTH, admitted that the hospital’s CT scan was not working, but the ministry had duly given approval for it to be fixed, and had also promised to provide another CT scan and MRI to complement the existing ones.

He could, however, not tell when the equipment will be arriving.

Since the demo coincided with the inauguration of the Board of Directors of Korle Bu, the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyemang Manu, his deputies and other officials of from the ministry, were compelled to abandon an intended tour of the facility after the inauguration.