A member of Parliament’s Health Committee says there are enough redress mechanisms in the health sector to deal with grievances, and no one should justify attacks on health professionals by claiming the system does not work.
Prof Titus Beyuo, speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday, August 20, warned against attempts to normalise violence in hospitals following the assault of nurses and doctors at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital.
“Have you not seen people sued and being asked to pay millions of cedis in this country? Have you not seen people feel that they are scared the hospitals didn’t meet the standard and they took the case to court, and won.
“We have doctors who have been suspended for practice. I have served on a professional and disciplinary committee of one of the regulatory authorities and we’ve struck the licenses of registered practitioners for not meeting the standard.
“So we shouldn’t dare say that, ‘Oh, because I feel that the system will not respond promptly if I make a complaint, then I should take the law into my own hands.’”
He argued that resorting to violence against medical staff could set a dangerous precedent.
“Then where will we get to in this country? If you feel your teachers have not taught your kids well, you go to the school and beat them? Or you feel the police is not handling your case well, justice is delaying, you go to their workplace and beat them?
“Is that what we are saying? And in the hospital, where other people are lying down in pain, perhaps exposed, and we don’t even allow other relatives to come in, you go live and it’s acceptable, no.”
Prof Beyuo insisted that the country already has established channels to ensure accountability in the health system.
“So I think that there are redress mechanisms. As I said, I don’t know the full details, but look, when that 70-something-year-old man died for lack of no bed, a thorough investigation was done. We looked at triaging that was done at every level.
“If it was triage orange, what did you do? It was triage red, what did you do? If it was triage green, what did it mean? The time to respond and all that. There are international standards for all of this. So test the law. And that’s the only way we can get all our practitioners to be on their toes.”
He emphasised that health professionals are not above the law, but must be held accountable through due process rather than mob action.
“They can be sued. You can petition their regulators, who can discipline them. People can cease to practice as nurses, as doctors, as pharmacists, for not meeting the standard.
“That is the direction we should be going to. It should not give anybody the opportunity to walk into a hospital and beat doctors and nurses.”