Outspoken Political Science Lecture at KNUST, Dr Richard Amoako Baah is unhappy with public condemnation concerning the latest government directives on the ‘KATH missing baby saga’.
The health ministry after its extensive investigation has ordered the suspension of two midwifes.
Marian Asare and Patience Amponsah are to go for two and four week’s suspension without pay.
The two supervisors were cited for not following standard procedure in their duty while the doctor who oversaw the delivery has been absorbed of any wrong doing.
The directive has however attracted some public backlash with several quarters including the family of Suweiba describing the punishments as too lenient.
But Dr Amoako Baah believes the public should be more circumspect in calling for stiffer punishments.
Empathizing with the nurses and midwifes over the pressure they are compelled to work under in a resource deficient environment, he urged the public to acknowledge the fact that everything in that ward, is emergency in attending to several babies and mothers in labor at a time.
‘If you are a nurse under pressure, so many women and babies, save this one, that one is dead, why would you spend time on a dead one when there is another one being born and another baby is about to die too. So if in the process, you neglected to sign a document, should you be held so responsible for it?’ he inquired furiously.
He was of the firm opinion that sparing the nurses should have even been considered in the ministry’s directives.
Meanwhile, speaking to Ultimate Radio, president of the Ashanti Regional Bar Association, Lawyer Yaw Boafo was of the view that the whole issue had been treated with ‘unfair political populism’.
He explained that the whole issue about someone being purported to have stolen a baby was stirred by the streak of conflicting information given by the mother of the stillborn baby- Suweiba Mumuni.
He pointed out that the issue only became topical three days after an elder of the family came asking for the body for Islamic burial.
He indicated that the fault system in the hospital was bound to happen as by culture and tradition, most parents refused to take stillborns home. This he opined had laxed the meticulous procedures for documenting such occurrences overtime.
Lawyer Yaw Boafo was however unhappy the ministry’s report failed to condemn the physical attacks on the hospital and its staff by some Zongo dwellers.
He conjectured that those areas must have been spared the whip because of their strong allegiance to the ruling national democratic congress (NDC).
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