U/W: Minister orders probe into death of 2-year-old denied healthcare

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The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih has ordered an immediate probe into the circumstances that led to the death of a two-year-old boy who suffered a snake bite and could not access treatment at the old Upper West Regional Hospital.

The boy is reported to have been referred from Boli, a community in the Wa municipality to the regional facility.

Upon reaching the hospital, parents of the deceased were asked to go for a folder before treatment could start.

It, however, took more than four hours of waiting before they were allegedly told that those in charge of issuing folders did not report to work.

That seemed to have angered the frustrated parents who decided to resort to traditional treatment at the village.

The boy, however, died on their arrival to the community.

The incident angered a cross-section of members in the Wa municipality especially an uncle of the two-year-old boy, Salia Abudi, who is calling for heads to roll at the regional hospital.

Speaking at the meet the press series at Nandom on Monday, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih expressed his anger and revulsion about the incident, saying:

“Through the negligence of health officials at the old regional hospital, a two-year-old child lost his life. I am going to constitute a committee to investigate this matter”.

He said very serious punitive actions will be taken against anyone who is found culpable after the investigations.

“If it is indeed true that it was out of negligence that this boy lost his life, punitive actions will be taken.”

The Regional Minister indicated that in order to ensure transparency in the process, the media personnel in the region should appoint one of their members to be part of the committee.

“And I am appealing to our media persons here to get me one person here to be part of the committee so that you don’t say that we are hiding certain facts from the public.”

Background

A two-year-old baby met his untimely death over the weekend over allegations he was denied treatment at the Upper West Regional Hospital.

The boy, Citi News gathers was bitten by a snake and had been referred to the Regional Hospital after being given first aid at a CHPS compound.

According to the parents of the deceased, the boy was not attended to by the health officers, several hours after arriving at the hospital.

The Upper West Region has over the years been grappling with a lack of doctors and other critical staff to man health facilities in the area.

The Regional Director of Health, Dr. Osei Kufuor Afreh recently lamented that doctors who are posted to the region fail to turn up.

An ultramodern hospital which was commissioned in August this year is still closed to the public.

Dr. Hafiz, however, said, “the new hospital is not operational because there are certain administrative matters that are yet to be addressed.”

He assured residents in the region that the facility will soon be opened for public use.

Source :Citinewsroom.com