The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin, has directed the Committee on Health to investigate the outcomes of various probes into the death of a hit-and-run victim, Mr Charles Amissah, who was allegedly denied emergency care by three hospitals due to the unavailability of beds.
He also stressed the urgent need for Parliament to pass an emergency care law to prevent what he described as “needless deaths.” The Speaker further instructed all agencies investigating the case to submit their reports to the Committee within two weeks.
Mr Bagbin issued the directive after the Minority Leader, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, made a statement on the floor of Parliament in Accra yesterday outlining the circumstances surrounding the young man’s death.
According to the Speaker, the conditions under which Mr Amissah lost his life were unacceptable and exposed troubling attitudes in some health facilities across the country. He said Parliament, as representatives of the people, must ensure accountability.
“We have to take control, enquire into the matter, and hold people accountable. This is one of the needless deaths we have experienced in this country. At the end of the day, I will urge the House for us to legislate on the matter. We need to pass an emergency care law,” Mr Bagbin said.
While acknowledging the difficult conditions under which health personnel work, he insisted that lapses in duty must not be excused.
“I know the conditions under which our health personnel operate. But I also know that health personnel have handled accident cases, stabilised them in the bush and people have survived through that. So, the few that are miscreants should not be allowed to at least carry the day,” he added.
The Speaker also cautioned Members of Parliament against politicising the issue, warning that such tragedies could happen to anyone.
“Many of you are seated here playing partisan politics. You cannot see beyond your political parties and sometimes you forget that, as some have echoed, you could be the one,” he stated.
Sharing his perspective, the Majority Leader and Leader of Government Business, Mahama Ayariga, stressed the need to strengthen the country’s health system to ensure effective healthcare delivery.
“In some jurisdictions, there would be public outrage and outcry — not the type that I see happening — that an accident victim was moved from hospital to hospital and the medical personnel there refused to treat it as an emergency. It says everything about us as a country,” he said.
Mr Ayariga added that Parliament must get to the root of the matter, noting that similar incidents had not received the attention they deserved over the years.
Earlier, Mr Afenyo-Markin presented a chronology of events leading to Mr Amissah’s death. While expressing condolences to the bereaved family, he called for decisive action to address systemic failures that contributed to the tragedy.
Among his demands were the summoning of the chief executive officers and heads of emergency units of the hospitals involved, the production of duty rosters and bed occupancy records, and a determination of whether professional misconduct or negligence occurred.
BY BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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