The Indiscipline @ 37 Military Hospt Must Stop Now!!!

It was utterly intimidating and completely annoying when the Editors of this paper paid a two-day visit to the 37 Military Hospital, in Accra, as a result of repulsive annotations made by some attendants to the facility. Reports as captured by our team were only a confirmation of the negative ovations that patients and visitors have in recent times accorded personnel and management of the once reputable hospital. Arrogance, negligence of duty, gross disrespect, naked misconduct and shear incompetence were the distinguishing marks of the renowned Yeboah Maternity Ward, where most pregnant women in their enthusiasm to bring happiness to their marital homes visit in the process of childbirth. Ward assistants, they are called, roped into the health service, by the kind courtesy of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and have been detailed at the labor region to offer assistance to pregnant women who have come to deliver, were caught by The Editors in their elements, awfully displaying their everyday inhumane attitude. Insults and showcasing of unrefined attitude by these ward assistants never eluded our cameras. For the two-day period of monitoring activities at the Yeboah Maternity Ward, it became explicit that the unskilled majority, mainly school dropouts, absorbed by some institutions for health training, is fast becoming a curse than the blessing all Ghanaians expected. Instead of these ward attendants paying attention to details of duty, so as to administer to the pregnant women in their custody the appropriate medication, they prefer to remain in the comfort of their seats at the lobby of the aforementioned ward, watching television and engaging each other in unnecessary chats, televisions series (telenovelas), petty domestic squabbles and plain gossips which sometimes ended-up in loud laughter akin to the way and manner business is conducted at the 31st December Markola Market. In the melee, the best they could do is to heap insults on pregnant women who ask for their help, to the extent that they have the bravado without any basis call the bluff of patients and visitors. It was despicably shocking to hear nurses at 37 Military Hospital shouting, to the hearing of everybody present, and on a weak-fragile woman in labour that ‘your baby is dead in your stomach’ and therefore do not need any special attention. Heavens! Chills gripped us. It was completely shocking when one of the ward assistants told the colleague not to waste her precious time on a pregnant woman who had come to the hospital to deliver, on the premise on the basis that the said nurse will be discredited as having recorded a case of still-birth. Our deepest regret and concern was the mode of communication of such an issue and the atrociousness that was displayed subsequently by the so-called nurses of the Yeboa Maternity Ward. As to whether the baby was dead in the womb of that woman or not, the mode and style of communication was so offensive, in that, the message could have summarily ended the life of that woman, who was undergoing severe pains. Lo and behold, the woman who apparently did not care much about the message was never attended to by these cold-blooded health assistants who clearly, do not know the purpose of their presence at the facility. Instances of such nature where irresponsible nurses acted so unprofessionally to the discredit of their uniforms and the 37 Military hospital, were in reckless abandon. We therefore wonder if the management of 37 Military Hopsital has been doing any intelligence work to gather such evidence, in order to do away with such nurses and their atrocious misconduct which is maiming and endangering lives. The Commanding Officer of 37 Military Hospital should explain to the general public, how come a woman in labour, who is walking with difficulty and in pain, amidst tears, because she detects the baby is on the verge of dropping-out, was told on Tuesday late-afternoon to go and pick her items from the wardroom before being taking to the theatre. Yes. This happened. The Informer is ready to point out the nurses who shamelessly sat around and gossiped, all in the name of giving health services and endangered the life of this particular woman, whom we pray, should survive it. Ghanaians and for that matter this paper have every cause to worry and register utmost displeasure about how cruel these dropouts absorbed into most institutions for guidance have become, since the good people of this country, especially pregnant women, cannot continue to suffer and undergo these monstrous drills in the name of accessing quality health care. It is on record of how the 37 Military Hospital has become a death-trap due to the insurgence of unprofessional conducts from their nurses and health assistants. Credible information according to our mortuary sources has it that, most of the death related cases associated with child delivery at 37 Military Hospital is as a result of the cruelty suffered by most pregnant women in the hands of these health un-professionals, popularly referred to us ‘Ward Assistants.’ The Informer was traumatized to have witnessed such a development at the 37 Military Hospital, an event that has derailed all the respect many, including The Informer, had for the renowned facility. Reports of infant mortalities in our hospitals, currently is not the best thing to say of a developing country like ours, therefore charlatans and those unskilled nurses and health assistants parading the corridors of health facilities in the country, especially those engaged as a result of the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), must be weeded-out completely. References can be made to so many instances where, the misconduct on the part of health personnel have ended up in the loss of precious lives, including that of the Late wife of Hon. Alhaji Inusah Fuseni, at the police Hospital, this year. This is enough bases for government to sanitize the health institutions off miscreants and heartless employees like those at the Yeboah Maternity Ward at the 37 Military Hospital, whose actions have brought wailings and sorrows to many families. We will not hesitate to take on the Mr. Benjamin Kumbour, the sector Minister, if he fails to purge and act on reports of gross indiscipline being brought against some health professionals especially the ward assistants. Also we believe that authorities at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra, will swallow the criticisms in good faith and flush-out from their system, these organic and hardnosed charlatans, who have tagged themselves as ward assistants. The Informer having directed its spotlight at the 37 Military Hospital will not relent in efforts to expose nasty developments like the above, since the President cannot promise a Better Ghana where out of negligence people (women and their babies) die.

We know of a case that is being prepared for court against 37 Military Hospital, as a result of such negligence. The Informer supports such actions and is ready to point out, name, shame and flush-out such characters from the system.