Kwabena Mintah Akandoh has provided further details on the alleged assault of a nurse at Ridge Hospital, insisting that the matter is being treated with urgency and seriousness.
Appearing on Hot Issues with Keminni Amanor, Mr. Akandoh explained the steps taken by his ministry following the incident, which has drawn nationwide concern.
According to the Health Minister, reports reaching his office indicated that a nurse had been violently attacked.
“As at the time, the allegation was that the nurse was physically attacked—she was brutalized, hit left, right, center to the extent that she had a dislocation of the shoulder.
“When I visited, she was in a bandage. She also indicated she had lost 800 Ghana cedis and her phone. So I instructed that she be treated free of charge, that her 800 cedis be refunded, and her phone replaced,” the Minister recounted.
When asked who the nurse identified as her attacker, the Minister explained that he deliberately refrained from delving into the details.
“At the time, because I was not ready to go to the merits and demerits of the matter, I didn’t ask those follow-ups.
“I thought that would come up at the committee level. My presence there was to reassure the staff so they could continue working, because the signals I was picking suggested that they were considering other options,” he said.
Mr. Akandoh added that the hospital staff, including senior officers and the medical superintendent, were relieved by his visit.
“They were exceedingly happy that the Minister himself could walk there at that point in time because of the incident,” he said.
Addressing the broader context, he emphasized the role of unions in the health sector, pointing out that while union leaders play an important role, real solutions must come from collaboration with government.
“Union leaders may not have solutions to the problems of their members. It is always government at the center of the issue. It is a matter of collaboration, not opposition,” he noted.
