It appears the rot at the Upper East Regional Hospital is widespread and stinks more than what has been uncovered.
Following the arrest of 3 staff of the hospital, who were implicated in an investigation by Media Without Boarders for allegedly stealing medicines belonging to the facility, some users of the regional hospital have been sharing their harrowing experiences at the health facility.
One of them, John Paul Danka, a youth leader narrated how the whole hospital ran out of a particular medication a medical doctor had prescribed but a nurse at the facility was selling same to patients.
Speaking on State of Our Nation, Paul Danka recounted that the doctor had prescribed mofen, a pain reliever to a lady he had accompanied there for treatment.
But when they got to the hospital pharmacy for the prescription, they were told that mofen was out of stock.
However, a nurse, who works at the facility, had same drug ready to sell to them.
The nurse would, however, not accept any other method of payment except cash.
“I sent a woman to hospital someday and we were prescribed with certain drugs and the first medication was supposed to be mofen. There was no mofen there but we bought mofen from a nurse.
You get the situation. Even wanting to use momo to pay, she refused. If it’s genuine, why would reject my mode of payment,” he narrated.
Paul Danka shared his experience while speaking on the possible lapses in the management system of the hospital that might have enabled the misappropriation of drugs and other consumables at the facility.
Police, on August 4, arrested 3 staff of the hospital for their alleged involvement in the theft of government drugs after their cover was blown by Media Without Boarders.
A year long investigation by the media outlet discovered that Raheem Fasilat, a storekeeper at the hospital; Raymond Asoke, the hospital’s driver; Noeyelle Bridget, Assistant Dispensary Officer at the hospital’s pharmacy in connivance with others yet to be identified were allegedly stealing and smuggling drugs belonging to the hospital out of the region.
The investigators trailed Raymond Asoke to an unmarked house where he had gone to load the stolen medicines into a car and alerted the police leading to his arrest.
The other two were subsequently arrested and the drugs retrieved.
Speaking on the matter, Paul Danka expressed shock that the hospital’s digital system is not robust enough to cater for real-time monitoring of its supplies to curb such misappropriation.
He suspects the system may have been compromised and thus, urges management to look into it.
“How has the Regional Hospital been a counting for medications that they receive over the years? They need to relook at the software they are using.
It’s possible there’s a component in the software that when they stock, it reflects but because of maybe some people’s quest to outwit the system, they refuse to activate it”.
