Tamale Teaching Hospital gets new boss

Dr Prosper Akanbong, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), has appealed to staff and management of the Hospital to stop acts of acrimony and unite to push forward its development agenda.

He said TTH was the only referral hospital serving the Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions and stressed the need to protect the facility through unity, togetherness and the commitment to serve the interest of the hospital since anything short of that would spell doom of the hospital.

Dr Akanbong said this at a workers' durbar during which the board of the hospital formally introduced him to staff and management of the Hospital as the substantive Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

The TTH has been without a substantive CEO after the exit of Dr Ken Sagoe, who went on compulsory retirement from the Public Service on September 18, 2013 and handed over to Dr Akanbong as acting CEO.

Dr Sagoe retired after five-year tenure as CEO and during the period the Hospital underwent comprehensive renovation and expansion and a state-of-the-art-diagnostic equipment was provided

Dr Akanbong said he was not going to witch-hunt but would serve the interest of the Hospital to improve healthcare delivery.

“I call on everybody to put hands on deck. I am only a leader and I know I will not be here forever and for that matter I need the support of all including those who contested the position with me so that together we push the development agenda of TTH forward,” he said.

“If we understand that in every race there must be only one winner, in every game only one winner emerges then I am sure everyone in TTH would accept that a winner has emerged and we all need to embrace for unity of purpose to serve mother Ghana”, he said.

Dr Idris Mutawakil, the Board Chairman of the TTH, congratulated Dr Akanbong on the position and advised him not to relent in his efforts to improve the status of the hospital.

He appealed to the staff and management members not to see Dr Akanbong as a stumbling block to their work and progress but as their chief messenger working to promote their interest.

Dr Mutawakil said anyone who would try to undermine the authority of Dr Akanbong was doing a dishonest service to TTH and stressed the importance of unity, cohesion and togetherness to improve healthcare delivery.

He said the board would not countenance any form of indiscipline and added “We need to work hard to justify the positions we are occupying and we should do to others what we want others to do to us”.