Member of Parliament for Garu and former CEO of the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), Dr. Thomas Anaba, has warned health professionals that turning patients away at Emergency Departments without first assessing them is unacceptable, even in overcrowded conditions.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Saturday, February 21, Dr. Anaba stressed that every patient must be triaged upon arrival to ensure they receive care appropriate to the severity of their condition.
He explained that the triage system assigns colour codes to prioritize patients and prevent deaths from negligence.
He emphasized that turning patients away without proper assessment is unprofessional and violates Ghana’s medical policies.
“The person must be triaged. No one has the right at the emergency to turn awayin an a patient at the emergency and say go to the next hospital. It doesn’t matter whether there will be a clog or not. That is where we have the problem.
“They must be triaged. You must be brought down to the nurse at the emergency, then you are assessed to see your vitality.
“That is where they give you a read code, an orange code, yellow or a green code. Red means you can die in five minutes, orange means it can get complicated in 30 minutes, yellow means you can wait for one hour, green means you can even wait for 24-Hours. This is to make sure that anybody that gets there gets the necessary attention.
“To tell the relative of a patient that take him to the next hospital without going to see, I want to remind my colleague professionals, that it is unacceptable, no matter the circumstance,” he said.
No-Bed Syndrome: Emergency cases poorly managed in Ghana — Dr. Anaba
