Discussions on Newsfile on JoyNews will be centred on some stories that made headlines within the week. These include No bed syndrome, mysterious disappearance of babies at Ridge Hospital, Lithurs’ divorce saga, Kelni GVG scandal as well as the National Identification/ Ghana Card registration fiasco.
This week, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) called on government to increase funding for the health sector and emergency services in particular as part of measures to solve the no bed syndrome that has gripped the country’s leading hospitals.
The syndrome has led to a number of needless deaths with the recent being a 70-year-old who died in his car after being turned away from six public health facilities over lack of beds.
Meanwhile the Speaker of Parliament on the other hand tasked parliamentarians to formulate a new law that will make it criminal for health personnel to turn away patients over lack of beds.
“No medical person shall refuse to attend to a person in an emergency situation, Prof Mike Ocquaye said on a day when Members of Parliament were vehement in their condemnation of the “no bed syndrome” a popular refrain by health personnel.
In a related development, a young couple is pleading with medical professionals at Greater Accra Regional Hospital to provide them with details into the mysterious disappearance of their newborn child.
On May 10, John Gabulja says he received a phone call from his pregnant wife who was experiencing stomach pains. She was 31 weeks pregnant.
He left work and rushed to her side, then proceeded to the Ridge Hospital. Shortly after being admitted, she delivered twin girls, but because they were born premature, they were placed in incubators.
Doctors told the couple their children would be monitored there until further notice, said John Gabulja.
Six days later, Gabulja instincts told him to check on his twins at the hospital. Upon arrival, he was informed that the oldest of his twins was dead.
“It cannot be possible. My child cannot be dead,” Gabulja recounted telling doctors. “No one told me beforehand.”
He was then told that the surviving twin would continue to be monitored to prevent her from contracting an infection.
Distraught and devastated, Gabulja demanded answers. He scheduled a meeting with doctors requesting for his baby’s corpse. But instead, he says, doctors would not oblige. He was only advised to sign a document stating that he’d been counseled on the matter.
Lithurs’ divorce saga
Portions of a divorce petition filed by the lawyer for Tony Lithur on May 2, 2018 at the Divorce and Matrimonial Division of the High Court demanding a divorce from his wife Nana Oye Lithur leaked on social media Tuesday.
According to the petition, “When the parties settled down to marriage, petitioner began to notice some unnerving character traits of the Respondent. While petitioner was aware Respondent was aggressive in approach to many things, nothing prepared him for what he later discovered of cruel and instinctively violent traits. She consistently exhibited physical violence and cruelty against every person that has ever lived with the parties, either as household staff or relative.”
But celebrated Lawyer Tony Lithur pleaded with Ghanaians to give him and his family some privacy regarding his divorce case against his wife Nana Oye Lithur, a former Minister of Gender, Children and Social Protection.
Kelni GVG
Telcos have called the bluff of Communications minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful after ignoring her strongly-worded deadline to comply with a government plan to monitor their call traffic as a means of verifying the accurate tax payments.
Only Glo connected onto the system operated by Kelni GVG which has been contracted by government to provide call traffic data which will be used to verify if telcos declare the correct taxes.
Giants MTN, Vodafone and AirtelTigo stayed out as the 11-day deadline rolled out without event.
The telcos have raised concerns about privacy of client data if they plug into the $89m Kelni GVG system.
National Identification/ Ghana Card registration fiasco
The Minority caucus in Parliament is set to file processes at the Supreme Court for an interpretation on the use of the voters’ ID card as proof of nationality and registration for the Ghana card.
The leader of the Minority side, Haruna Iddrisu revealed this on Wednesday.
He said the Minority firmly believes that many Ghanaians will be denied the opportunity to register and be issued with the Ghana card since the National Identification Authority (NIA) has limited the proof of citizenship to passport and birth certificate.
