The Ministry of Health (MOH) has accepted recommendations of the Committee tasked to investigate the death of Mrs. Gladys Ampadu at the Ridge hospital on June eight 2002, that the matter of the missing pages from the two records books of the hospital be referred to the police for investigations.
This is contained in a statement issued by Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs on Thursday. It said the MOH and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) have also accepted all other recommendations of the committee except that which requested that the body of the late Mrs. Ampadu be exhumed for post-mortem to be carried out.
It said the exhumation should be done at the express request of her family since it had been established that she died of natural causes. The statement said that though the Committee's report was silent about the conduct of Dr. Kweku Sakyi-Obuobi in the matter, the GHS views his role in the saga seriously and have referred his unprofessional conduct to the Medical and Dental Council.
It said MOH would refer the conduct of Mr. Kwesi Pratt Jnr. editor of "The Insight", a private newspaper, to the Media Commission for redress. The Ministry requested that Pratt render an unqualified apology to the family of the late Mrs. Ampadu for his insensitivity to their plight.
Pratt should also render unqualified apologies to the Ridge Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, the GHS and the MOH for bringing their names into disrepute.
It said in view of the findings of the Committee, Mr Pratt should retract the publication in the 30 October 2002 edition of the newspaper and render an unqualified apology to the Minister of health, Dr. Kweku Afriyie for the legal action threat.
An allegation by Mr kwesi Pratt Jnr. in the 30 October 2002 edition of "The Insight", that the death of the late Mrs. Ampadu at the Ridge Hospital on 8 June 2002 occurred on the operating table as a result of power failure necessitated the Ministry of health to institute a public enquiry into the incident.
