Sixteen employees at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) have faced disciplinary actions due to various transgressions, as hospital management pledges to enhance regulations to curb misconduct within the institution.
Among the affected personnel, one has been terminated from their position, while others have received warnings and a few have been placed on temporary suspension without pay.
The Chief Executive Officer of the hospital, Professor Otchere Addai-Mensah, stated that the wrongdoings encompassed activities like extortion committed by certain implicated staff members.
Professor Addai-Mensah emphasized that this initiative is aimed at purifying the operational framework and emphasizing the importance of patient care in the context of the referral hospital.
“One thing that we have not toyed with is discipline in the hospital and about sixteen staff have been sanctioned for various offences. The exhortation has come up a couple of times and many other offences reported too. The quality assurance unit has been strengthened, and it is largely responsible for setting up committees to investigate issues like this and make recommendations to management which then are forwarded to the disciplinary committee which takes a decision on what sanctions should be meted out to culprits.”
The CEO also revealed ongoing plans to renovate the aging Gee Block within the hospital premises. The major blocks, initially erected 70 years ago to function as wards, have not undergone substantial refurbishments. Given that the hospital receives patients from various regions of the country, concerns about the condition of these structures have been raised.
In response, the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, is leading an initiative to raise funds for the renovation of these facilities.
Addressing the attendees at the hospital’s mid-year performance review conference in Kumasi for 2023, Professor Addai-Mensah expressed his conviction that such intervention would contribute significantly to the enhancement of healthcare services.
“We are on a drive to raise about $10 million for the renovation of the old Gee Block. That Block was built in 1954 and has been in operation for almost 70 years and there has not been any thorough renovation of that Block.”