[ 2017-02-16 ]

KATH CEO enforced cash and carry policy at emergency ward
Contrary to the feisty denial by the CEO of the
Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital that emergency
drugs were not dispensed on cash and carry basis,
Myjoyonline.com has intercepted a document that
suggests otherwise.

A May 23, 2016 Memo from the head, accident and
emergency pharmacy and copied to all Directors,
head of department Emergency Medicine, Head of
department Trauma and Orthopaedics, suggested that
the CEO vetoed a decision to make exceptions to
patients who are entitled to a 24 hour supply of
cash drugs In the memo titled "Review of supply of
non-insured cash drugs" suggested that emergency
drugs must be paid for before they are supplied
but the head of the accident and emergency
pharmacy gave exceptions.

However on the said memo, the CEO threatened that
anyone who gave out cash drugs without collecting
money will be made to pay for them.

The memo and its content are at variance with
comments by the CEO Dr Joseph Akpalu who denied
claims by the Komfo Anokye Doctors Association
(KADA) that the cash and carry system, among other
things were increasing the mortality and morbidity
rates in the hospital.

Chairman of KADA Dr Michael Leat, in a damning
letter to the CEO raised issues of lack of
logistics which was gradually turning the once
enviable medical centre of excellence into a grave
yard.

Dr Leat cited the lack of oxygen which he said
killed about five patients a couple of days ago.

He was also furious with the cash and carry system
which made it impossible for victims to receive
treatment if they had no money to pay for the
blood transfusion and the emergency drugs.

He said for the second largest referral centre in
Ghana, it will be dangerous to ask accident
victims some of whom may have been transiting from
one region to another to pay for drugs and blood
before they will be attended to.

"As doctors we are sick and tired of presiding
over deaths," Dr Leat said in the letter
intercepted by Myjoyonline.com Tuesday.

He suggested they are increasingly becoming
"shells of horror," who are "unable to endure the
constant psychological assault they encounter
daily." The doctors would not want to be used as
"instruments of morbidity and mortality" in an
ill-functioning emergency ward.

But the CEO Dr Akpalu dismissed the claims by the
doctors. In an interview on the Joy SMS, the Korle
Bu CEO said the lack of oxygen claims cannot be
true. He also rejected the claim that monies are
taken from accident victims before they are given
medical treatment.

Barely a day after his denial, Myjoyonline.com
intercepted a memo which reads: "Per the directive
by central management, all non-insured cash drugs
must be paid for before supplies are made. The
only exception is, a twenty-four (24) hour supply
of such medicines would be made in cases where
payments cannot be effected immediately."

On the memo in the possession of Myjoyonline.com,
the CEO in handwriting further threatened that
there should be "No exception in cash drugs or you
pay for them. If supplied, supplier must follow up
to collect the money."

It is not clear why Dr Akpalu would deny in public
the existence of a cash and carry system in the
facility when there is a policy instituted to
enforce same.

Source - Myjoyonline.com

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