Sacked Ridge Hospital boss demands answers

The director of the rebuilt Ridge Hospital, Dr. Thomas Anaba, who was reportedly sacked last Monday, has said he would not respect the directive, unless he was given the exact reason, why he is being asked to vacate his post.

Dr. Anaba, who was appointed in February 1, 2016 argues, he is unable to follow the directive by the Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, because that was not how he was appointed. He maintains his appointment was not a political position, but rather through the civil service.

Meanwhile, government will today, May 17, 2017 open to public the use of now Greater Accra Regional Hospital which was constructed by former president, John Dramani Mahama.

Speaking on Sunrise Morning Show on 3FM yesterday, the medical director whose tenure would have expired in 2020 with a chance of re-applying said, per his appointment, his dismissal should have been initiated by the Public Service Commission and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) Council, ideally citing reasons.

“The Director’s appointment had to go through Public Services Commission for analysis to see if it was done genuinely. The letter authorizing my sack, was signed by the Minister to the Director General, who then added a cover letter and sent to me personally.

In the Minister’s letter, it was only written to me and copied to the Director without any reference.” “I only want clarification for what I’ve done to be sacked for it to be on record, because I don’t want posterity and people to be thinking and conjecturing why I left the place, so that I can also leave in peace,” he ended.

The director, whose dismissal came as a surprise to him, said his position was not a political and the excuse that the hospital is going to be restructured, did not sit well with him.

Dr Anaba told the host, Winston Amoah, “I was taken aback because this is a medical fraternity, a civil service professional doing his work, not a political position.

So I don’t see how a Minister without any report from the regional director to the Director General to the Council can sit in his office and just write a letter that you are dismissed, because we are re-structuring the Ridge Hospital”.

Dr. Anaba, indicated he was served his dismissal letter on Monday, May 15 and had to vacate his post within two hours. He continued that he was to handover to Dr. Emmanuel Srophenu, supervised by the Regional Director of Health, who was available to see to it.

“I received notification notice yesterday around 10:15 am to hand over immediately to Dr. Emmanuel Srophenu, who has been appointed as Acting Director and within two hours the regional Director of Health, Dr. Linda Van Otoo, was available to supervise the process immediately”.

According to him, it is going to be difficult for him to leave the hospital as directed by the minister within the short period, because of the stature of the newly built facility.

“How can I hand over, it’s impossible for me to hand over that big hospital with all the processes that went on within a twinkle of an eye”?

On the re-opening of the new hospital, a statement from the health ministry signed by its head of public relations, Robert Cudjoe, copied to Radio Gold inviting journalists to cover the ceremony noted that new clinical services will also be introduced.

The 620-bed capacity hospital was financed by Government of Ghana (GoG) with support from the Exim and HSBC Bank at an estimated of 250 million US dollars.

The cost of the hospital construction, dominated headlines in the run up to the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections, when the then opposition leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo, attacked the then NDC government of inflating the cost of the project.

The then NPP presidential candidate in his ‘real state of the nation’ address delivered in February 2015 accused former president Mahama and his NDC government of inflating the cost of the project by $142 million dollars.

His accusation was challenged by the then NDC government ,as well as Crown Agents Ghana Limited, the company contracted to conduct the Value for Money Assessment, on the project that made a recommendation that the total contract price for the project was rather reduced by $142 million.

The construction of the hospital is in two phases, ex- president John Mahama commissioned the first phase in November 2016 and the second phase is expected to be completed by next year, 2018.

Apart from it world-class medical facilities, the Greater Accra Regional hospital, also has delivery suites, maternity wards, intensive care units and other modern facilities.