A two-year-old boy from Boli, in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region, on Saturday evening died at the Regional Hospital, here, where he was rushed to, after he was bitten by a snake.
According to the parents, the boy was refused treatment on arrival at the hospital, because staff could not secure a folder for him as there were no personnel at the folder room.
According to the boy’s uncle, Mr Salia Abudu, the boy, who accompanied the mother, Niematu Ibrahim, to the farm, was rushed to a Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compound at Boli for first aid, and later referred to the hospital.
Mr Abudu said: “We arrived at the facility around 1:45pm in the afternoon, but there was no one in the folder room so we waited. I entered the emergency room without permission and pleaded with the staff on duty to attend to the boy, but I was turned away.”
He said he went to the Out Patient Department and met a male nurse, all in an attempt to get a folder for the boy to no avail.
Mr Abudu said he bought medicines prescribed by staff at CHPS compound for the boy, and “when we arrived home, and were about to apply the medication, the boy died and we buried him on Sunday morning”.
When contacted, the Acting Director at the hospital, Dr Emmanuel Steve Blankson, told the Ghanaian Times that he heard of the issue on Sunday morning through the media, and he had conducted preliminary investigation into the matter.
He stated that consultation with some of the staff confirmed that relatives of the boy had visited the facility at the time he (acting director) was attending to other cases.
Dr Blankson explained that like any other health centre, the hospital normally attended to emergency situations without demanding folders.
He said when a situation was not urgent but the folder could not be accessed on time, the hospital issued sheets to patients to commence treatment and dealt with the folder issue later.
He indicated that the hospital’s authorities would meet the family of the boy for their side of the story.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
