Nurses at Amasaman hospital accused of negligence

Nurses at Amasaman Government Hospital in the Ga West Municipality have been accused of negligence and dereliction of duty leading to the death of two patients who were taken to the facility for medical care.

Sources say one of the deceased, who was knocked down by a vehicle and the other, a patient, who checked in at the Out Patient Depatment (OPD), would have survived, had the nurses on duty at the time been a little bit professional in their approach to work and attended to them on time.

One of the victims, identified as Awal Osaka, was rushed to the hospital from the scene of an accident at the Pokuase ACP Junction on the Accra Nsawam road around 7:45 P.M., on Saturday, July 18, 2015 after he was knocked down by a Kia truck.

However, the nurses on duty refused to attend to the emergency case though the victim was bleeding profusely from injuries he sustained from the accident.

According to one Solomon Kuzegbe, a phone repairer at Circle-Accra,

who took the victim to the Amasaman Hospital, the nurses on duty claimed that there was no doctor around to look after the patient and therefore left him unattended to for about an hour whist he continued to bleed.

Not even several pleas to show mercy on the victim and offer him first aid would make the nurses budge as they stuck to their guns and insisted that in the absence of a doctor there was nothing they could do.

He said when the nurses finally decided to attend to the victim, they rather took the decision to refer the patient to the 37 Military Hospital with the explanation that the case was beyond them.

...“If they knew they would refer him why did they delay for an hour before taking such a decision," he angrily said.

Mr. Kuzegbe said when they requested for an ambulance they were told there was none available and rather asked them to put the victim in the bucket of the Kia truck that knocked him down to convey them to 37.

“So we put the victim in a taxi, and one of the nurses accompanied us administering Ingtravenous Fluids (IV). But to my surprise, the IV got finished because the nurse took only two drips even though I bought four (4) drips for the victim, somehow she left two behind."

He lamented and said the victim died halfway through their journey to the 37 Hospital.

“We blamed the medical practitioners on duty,” Solomon fumed, saying it was not their intention to rundown the sacrifice of medical practitioners but we are not ruling out murder in their way of doing things at the Amasaman Government Hospital,” he said.

“We will not entirely discount the fact that murder through whichever means is an everyday activity at the Amasaman Government Hospital," he added.

"...obviously, a doctor is not meant to kill, but the law is not only concerned about your actions, but your inactions as well. Why do you allow a patient to die at OPD and an accident victim to be denied treatment telling those who brought him there to look for their own means of transport to send the patient to another hospital when the hospital has an ambulance and besides, they were the very people who referred the victim?” he asked.

"...we are therefore challenging management of Amasaman Government Hospital to explain not just to us but to Ghanaians. Again, how is it that the nurses refuse to attend to emergency cases like the one involving Awal Osaka?", he asked.

"...Management of Amasaman has to explain a lot of things to us and then afterwards, if it is not satisfactory, of course, nothing can bring back those accident victims, but we believe in victory of good over evil and we would go to court,” the good Samaritans vowed.

The second patient reportedly died at the OPD on Sunday, 19th July, 2015 around 3:45 PM.

He was said to have reported at about 8:00 A.M., but did not receive medical care the whole day till he passed away from an unknown condition.

Today understands that patients who patronise the government facility on weekends go through hell in trying to access healthcare.

When Today contacted the Medical Superintendent of Ga West Municipal Hospital, Dr. Jarvis Abilla, he was apologetic and expressed surprise, whist assuring to investigate the issue and deal with the culprits when found to be truthful.

He said he would call for the list of all nurses on duty on the said days so investigations could begin in earnest.

He said the alleged conduct of the nurses if true was unfortunate and does not represent what nursing is all about.

Dr. Abilla said an example needs to be set so that other health workers would not emulate the bad example of their colleagues.

On the ambulance, he said the hospital has no stand by ambulance to handle referred cases.

He said the one available was for the whole community which was donated by the Member of Parliament for the area to the hospital.