The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital is seeking the urgent prioritization and construction of a catheterization laboratory after losing one of its critical medical staff who suffered a heart attack.
Dr. Kwame Adu Ofori, an Emergency Physician at the Hospital, is reported to have died over the weekend when his colleague doctors attempted saving him but lacked the crucial laboratory to treat an obstruction in one of the blood vessels pumping blood to his heart.
The absence of the laboratory at Ghana’s second largest teaching hospital has sparked grave concerns over the poor medical infrastructure in public health facilities in the country as Ghana boasts of only one of such facilities located in Accra.
It was a gloomy weekend at Ghana’s second largest teaching hospital, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, after health professionals watched helplessly to seek urgent medical attention for a colleague who suffered a myocardial infarction, otherwise known as a heart attack.
A specialized area to perform a minimally invasive procedure to diagnose and treat an obstructed blood vessel to his heart was missing at the Ashanti region’s foremost hospital.
Despite immediate response to stabilize him before being transported to the national capital for proper care, he died on the way.
CEO of KATH, Dr. Paa Kwesi Baidoo recounts moments of the unfortunate demise.
“After the doctors stabilized him, we arranged for a military airlift to transport him immediately to Accra for him to be properly attended to. We arranged a team of doctors and special care nurses for him. They were in touch when they got to Accra but he unfortunately died on their way to the hospital,” he recounted.
Dr. Kwame Adu Ofori before his passing was an Emergency Physician at the hospital, who contributed actively to providing emergency medical care to critically ill patients, but sadly couldn’t save himself.
Despite calls for successive governments to construct a Cath Lab for the facility, it has fallen on deaf ears.
“When a delegation from Bank of Ghana visited us, I made a plea to them to help us construct a CATH lab. They’ve asked that we submit a proposal to be sent to the Governor,” he said.
The similar situation is mirrored in public health facilities across other regions in the country.
A construction of the facility will be the first and foremost in the 67 years of existence of the hospital, serving the Ashanti region and the Northern part of Ghana.
Technically, doctors perform a cardiac catheterization on patients by inserting a thin, flexible tube called a catheter into a blood vessel, and this is carefully guided to the heart.
It is usually passed through the hand or leg to reach the heart without an open-heart surgery.
The unfortunate incident has since ignited concerns amongst workers at the hospital on the inadequate medical infrastructure.
Dr. Baidoo says the hospital needs urgent retooling to improve quality healthcare delivery.
“The sterilization facility at the hospital is also defunct. We need a comprehensive retooling of the hospital,” he noted.
Health professionals at the hospital anticipate an immediate construction and completion of the specialized laboratory to end the numerous avoidable cardiac deaths.
Meanwhile, the management of the hospital says the Minister of Health has been informed of the incident who has assured of the construction of the facility in not only Kumasi but also in Tamale and another in Accra.
