Posted: Daily Guide |Wednesday, 11 August 2010
by Charles Takyi-Boadu
There is growing tension at the nation’s premier hospital, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), over what is seen as the arbitrary removal and replacement of certain departmental heads.
Latest is the removal of the head of the Sub-Budget Management Center (sub-BMC) of the hospital’s central laboratory, Dr S.Y Oppong, which has sparked protest from the laboratory staff since no reason was assigned for his removal.
He has since been replaced with Professor Mercy Newman, wife of the current Chief of Staff of the Mills administration, Martey Newman, who retired from the service about three years ago.
This is generating tension amongst staff of the lab, management and the board of the hospital since they consider the move to be part of a grand scheme to axe some targeted departmental heads from their positions in order to bring others.
What seems to anger most of the staff is the ‘strange’ circumstance under which Prof Newman was handpicked from her retirement by the board of the hospital which is chaired by Professor Seth Aryeetey, considering the fact that they have an existing rotational structure for choosing their heads.
As if to add salt to injury, Prof. Newman has also engaged the services of a fellow retiree, one Prof. Osafo, as a consultant in chemical pathology for the department.
The staff of the central laboratory have held a series of meetings to kick against the decision.
They have also had running battles with the management of the hospital, led by Professor Nii Otu-Nartey, demanding a revocation of Prof Newmann’s appointment since it is against the norm.
Meanwhile, when she was in active service and the head of the sub-BMC, Prof. Newman was said to have cancelled the contracts of some retirees who were working in the department.
The situation is said to be affecting morale and productivity at the place since staff of the laboratory are said to have adopted a cold attitude towards work and vowed not to cooperate with their new boss since they prefer to work with Dr Oppong.
Others who have suffered a similar fate include the likes of the Head of Procurement of the hospital, Kofi Pobee Hayford, who was removed without reason, DAILY GUIDE has learnt.
Deputy Head of Administration Kambarim Kombian, who also served as the board secretary, has been removed and replaced with one Mr. Ribiero, an alleged retiree friend of the board chairman.
Indications are that workers at the central lab are contemplating on embarking on a possible demonstration or sit-down strike to back home their demand for the removal of Prof. Newman.
There are indications of more of such removals scheduled to take place within the next couple of days and weeks.
The Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu, Prof. Otu-Nartey, thinks the laboratory staff are taking issues too far since he sees nothing wrong with the decision.
As a teaching hospital, he said, to appoint anybody to head the laboratory or any clinical area, there should be consultation between the hospital and the university.
Whilst he admits that there is an existing rotational system, things have not been going on well at the lab and that he personally set up a committee to probe their activities and operations.
He therefore noted that the decision to remove the head of the sub-BMC was the result of the committee’s report.
According to him, the basis for Prof. Newman’s appointment was because she worked very hard when she served in that capacity before retiring.