The Minister of Health, Sherry Ayittey, says the case in which five babies were declared missing at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), has been handed over to the Attorney General’s Department for further investigations, pending possible prosecution.
According to her, the Ministry had finished investigating two aspects of the case which was the professional and administrative.
Speaking at the meet-the-press encounter in Accra yesterday, Ms Ayittey said, ‘We’ve taken action on the administrative part; we’ve taken action on the management partbut with the criminal action, we’ve handed it over to the Attorney General.’
‘The Medical and Dental Council extensively investigated the conducts of the doctors involved then also we had the Ghana Registered Nurses Association (GRNC) also investigate and they came out with their disciplinary codes as enshrined in the law,’ the Minister stated.
According to her, ‘One nurse is still being investigated by the policebecause the disappearance of the babies is a criminal act.’
She, however, advised lawyers for Suweiba Abdul Mumin to work closely with the Attorney General’s Department in their resolve to pursue justice in the matter.
The family of Suweiba, mother of one of the missing babies, has threatened to go to court to seek justice after a report by a committee which investigated the matter failed to establish the whereabouts of her baby.
The five babies were said to have been stillborn, but their bodies could not be traced, raising suspicion about the conduct of the health officials at the facility.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) investigative report on the missing babies at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital virtually absolved the hospital nurses who were at post during the incidents of any culpability.
They were however sanctioned for professional negligence.
The investigations, separately undertaken by the Nursing and Midwifery Council; Medical and Dental Council and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, recommended that Marian Asare, principal midwifery officer in-charge of the A1 Labour Ward where the bodies of the stillborn babies got missing, should be suspended from midwifery practice for four weeks without pay.
Patience Amposah, the midwife who was head of the night shift on the February 4-5, 2014, was found to have been professionally negligent.
As a result, it directed that she should also be suspended from the practice of midwifery for two weeks without pay.
It said, ‘Ms Patience Amposah failed to hand over the three stillborn babies in the utility room at the end of her shift physically to Ms Asare who in turn failed to ascertain the presence or otherwise of the still born babies before taking over.
‘It is worth noting that the two midwives would have to undergo an orientation programme prescribed by the council and submit evidence in this regard before their licenses will be restored,’ the report recommended.
By Cephas Larbi
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