Ridge Hospital shuts emergency ward for disinfection

The Ridge Hospital in Accra has shut down its emergency unit for disinfection following what the hospital describes as “an incident where a 75-year-old patient died of Covid-19.”

The emergency unit will, therefore, remain closed until Monday, March 30. Nana Osei Boansi Kuffuor who died at the hospital on Friday of Covid-19 has been identified as the father of musician, Bice Osei Kufuor, popularly known as Obour.

According to sources at the hospital, the musician sent the deceased to the emergency unit in critical condition but failed to disclose his father’s recent travel history to the health professionals there. It was only after the deceased had been admitted that tests were conducted which proved that he had coronavirus.

Nana Osei Boansi Kuffuor fell sick shortly after returning from the United Kingdom but since Obour failed to disclose this to the doctors and nurses, there was no suspicion that he might have contracted the coronavirus.

This means that no precautions were taken to avoid infecting hospital staff of the deadly virus. And being a music star, a lot of people in the unit at the time, interacted with Obour and his dad. This had led to fears that the unit might be contaminated and some staff might also have been exposed to the novel coronavirus.

Obour, however, strenuously denies this.

In a statement Saturday, he insisted that paramedics who transported his father to the hospital in an ambulance were informed before they went to pick him up from his house.

He said the deceased had been tested for coronavirus and that the family were awaiting the results.

Meanwhile, as a result of the incident at least 20 hospital staff have been placed in mandatory quarantine.