The Board Chairman of the nation�s premier health facility, Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Professor Andrews Seth Aryeetey has been compelled by prevailing circumstances at the hospital to resign his position.
He is reported to have tendered his resignation letter to President John Evans Atta Mills on Wednesday.
It comes a day after some junior staff of the hospital went up in arms against the hospital�s Board which is chaired by Prof. Ayettey, a close pal of the President, citing it for incompetence and hijacking the day-to-day administration of the facility.
They therefore called for the dissolution of the Board with immediate effect since its inability to solve the several challenges confronting the hospital had gravely affected the facility in the discharge of its duties.
At a press conference, Spokesman for the hospital�s staff who are paid from the Internally Generated Fund (IGF), Anthony Kpammah, noted, �We want the Minister of Health in connection with the President to dissolve the Board as soon as possible.�
Among the several reasons they cited included the removal of five senior officers from the hospital including the Director of Administration after his one-year probation.
Just last week Wednesday, February 22, 2012, Health Minister Alban Kingford Sumana Bagbin had cause to express similar concerns whilst on a familiarisation tour of the facility.
He indicated his intention to make recommendations for President Mills to consider a dissolution of the Board which had the likes of Fritz Baffour, Stella Quaye, Eric Kwame Atieku, Prof. Aaron Lawson, Prof Nii Otu Nartey (Chief Executive), Prof Yao Tettey, Prof. Grace Parkins and Prof. Afua A.J. Hesse as members.
The rest include Elizabeth Bruce, E. Anan-Kakabaah, Victoria A. Quaye, Isaac Owusu Adjakwah, T. A. Mahmoud and Mike Ribiero.
Mr Bagbin said, �The team spirit is gone and deviants have to be cast out. When the Bible said cut the hand that brings harm it did not mean do it yourself but someone can do it on your behalf.�
This, he said, was because �where others failed Korle-Bu should not have the luxury to fail; we can give excuses for our failure but Ghana cannot have that any longer. We are saying enough is enough and face the challenges that confront us.�
Meanwhile, junior workers of Korle Bu who are paid from the hospital�s IGF are equally agitating for their placement onto the payroll of the Controller and Accountant-General�s Department.
Some of these disgruntled staff who spoke to journalists indicated they had been working at the hospital for the past 15years and continued to be paid from the IGF, which is affecting them.
They also claimed they had not had any salary increment for the past four or so years.
What seemed to peeve them was the fact that most of their colleague workers in the health sector had been placed on the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS), government�s new pay policy for public sector workers, and were reaping the full benefits therein.
This, according to Spokesman for the group, �is bringing untold hardship on them; they think that something must be done immediately to come to their aid so that they can also be pushed onto the Controller and Accountant-General payroll so that they can also enjoy the single spine.�
They thus asked the authorities in charge to make amends before they considered laying down their tools to press home their demands.
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