Resignations Hit Korle-Bu

The woes of the country�s premier teaching hospital, the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) seem never to go away or get solved. Reports reaching The Heritage newspaper indicate that the hospital has been hit with a number of top profile resignations within the last two years. The Head of the Laboratory Sub-budget Management Centre, Professor Mercy Newman, whose re-appointment as the head of the lab generated displeasure among biomedical scientists at KBTH has resigned her position. Though she did not state reasons that informed her resignation, The Heritage investigations have stumbled upon startling information regarding her resignation. According to documents in possession of The Heritage dated August 29, 2011, addressed to the chief executive officer of the KBTH, Prof. N.O. Nartey, titled �Resignation As Head of Sub-budget Management Centre,� Prof. Newman stated that �I wish to resign from the above position with immediate effect for personal reasons. In lieu of one month notice, I have enclosed a cheque of GH�400.00.� Before her re-appointment, she had retired as the substantive head of the centre after serving diligently for three years. Investigations conducted by the paper suggest that her re-appointment on January 2010 which was on contractual basis generated uproar from the biomedical scientists as those who could not stand the decision of the board vacated their posts in opposition. Akosua Henewaa Appau, Francis Dzakpasu, Isaac Sam Annan and Ramatu Adjele Koney, biomedical scientists in their correspondence to the director of human resources at KBTH vacated their posts on November 1, 2010, June 1, 2009, October 2010 and December 1, 2010, respectively, following their displeasure at the board�s decision to re-appoint Prof. Newman, the paper�s investigation can confirm. And, fears were that the very few biomedical scientists at the lab would have followed suit. Some biomedical scientists who petitioned against her re-appointment to the chief executive officer of KBTH stated that during her tenure �there were equipment breakdowns, non-payment of consumables, lack of respect for staff and sit-down strikes.� Their implied opposition according to their petition was that �on her second coming to the hospital, there was no new thing she was bringing into the lab to aid diagnosis or income generation. Some board members of the KBTH who spoke to the Heritage asserted that the appointment of the lab head generated controversies because it was wrong for a contract staff to head a department. The norm in the civil service was for her to have had her position demoted, but that was not the case. �Her resignation was in her interest and long overdue,� one board member opined. When the board chairman of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Prof Seth Andrews Aryeetey, was contacted for an inkling into the re-appointment of Prof. Newman, he state that �there was nothing wrong with her appointment, and heading the department as a contract staff.� �Those positions are not salary position; she was appointed by the board to manage the lab BMC. People do not understand those positions,� he asserted strongly.