FULL STATEMENT: Dr Afaglo Petitions GHS over partisan politics at KATH

PRESS RELEASE

Petition: Patriotic Health Team Members and New Patriotic Party Caucus of Komfo Anokye Hospital, both Groups Within New Patriotic Party and Partisan Discriminative Consequences as Against the Ethics of Ghana Health Service

Having followed publications of some health professionals of Ghana Health Service being members and actively involved in the activities of two specialized health delivery groups which are an arm of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), known as Patriotic Health Team, and that of New Patriotic Party Caucus of Komfo Anokye Hospital, I hereby wish to draw your attention to this development as it is a clear violation of the ethics of Ghana Health Services, and the unfortunate near future adverse effect on non-discriminative health service delivery in Ghana.

Without placing numbers on the level of partisan politics divide in Ghana, it is rated as high, hence the involvement of some Ghana Health Service employees of the specialized health groups of the NPP leans heavenly on discrimination in their public health activities and likely within the hospital settings. Per the Ghana Health Service Code of Ethics, employees are prohibited from any such discriminative acts on grounds of politics in the delivery of health, and captured as,

_’No service personnel shall discriminate against patients/clients on grounds of the nature of illness, political affiliation, ……… in the course of performing their duties.’_ (Ghana Health Service) 

As long as some employees of Ghana Health Service are members of the specialized health groups of NPP with their group aim of delivery health service within that group fold they have contravened the Code of Ethics on discrimination on grounds of political party affiliation and this must be taken seriously in terms of the necessary compliance regulations.

For specifics and on a case by case bases the aim and membership of the group,

Patriotic Health Team – From their website,

‘Who can join us. The group is open to nurses midwifes, physician Assistants, Doctors and individuals who believes in the ideology of the New Patriotic Party and are willing to help propagate the Work and achievement of the government to the citizens of Ghana’ (Available from http://patriotichealthteam.com Accessed on 7 October 2020)

‘Who we are. Patriotic Health Team is a volunteer group under the umbrella of the New Patriotic Party NPP with the aim of delivering good health care to Foster Freedom and development in various communities and the Nations at large. The group is open to nurses midwifes, physician Assistants, Doctors and individuals who believes in the ideology of the New Patriotic Party and are willing to help propagate the Work and achievement of the government to the citizens of Ghana’ (Available from http://patriotichealthteam.com/about.html  Accessed on 7 October 2020)

New Patriotic Party Caucus Komfo Anokye Hospital – The objective of this group is as follows,

‘A group of doctors, nurses, physician assistants and pharmacists have created a New Patriotic Party (NPP) caucus in the Komfo Anokye Hospital to cater for the interest of the ruling party regards to the appointment of a new boss for the Ghana Health Service.’ (Available from https://www.mynewsgh.com/komfo-anokye-hospital-inaugurates-npp-staff-caucus-for-health-service-agenda/ Accessed on 7 October 2020)

In the interest of total health delivery without political affiliation discriminative tendencies, Good Governance Group plead with your office to investigate this unfortunate development and apply the needed sanctions on persons who belong to the Ghana Health Service as well as any of these two specialized health groups of the NPP. This way, we forestall the near future danger to health delivery of persons who do not belong to the party of the health deliverer.

Counting on your cooperation.

 Regards,

H. Kwame Afaglo (PhD)

7 October 2020