THE Ministry of Health has decided to institute a public enquiry into the death of Mrs Gladys Ampadu at the Ridge Hospital on June 8, 2002.

A statement signed by the Chief Director, Mr S. Owusu Agyei, said the enquiry follows an allegation by Mr Kwesi Pratt, Managing Editor of The Insight, that the woman died on the operating table as a result of power failure.

The five-member committee to be chaired by Nii Osa Mills, Vice President of the Ghana Bar Association (GBA), has two weeks to submit its recommendations for appropriate action. The statement said the committee's terms of reference will be to investigate the circumstance surrounding the death of Mrs Ampadu and any other matters, particularly circumstances surrounding the loss of a theatre document.

Other members of the committee are Prof. C.B.N. Tagoe of the University of Ghana Medical School; Mr Kwasi Afriyie Badu, a media consultant and member of the GJA Ethics Committee, Mrs Victoria Abbeyquaye, a retired Deputy Registrar, Nurses and Midwives Council; and Mr P.M.N.

Awuni, Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Administrator of the Police Hospital. Circumstances surrounding the death of Mrs Ampadu have triggered a war of words between the Minister of Health and Mr Pratt.

The authorities at the Ridge Hospital have denied that the woman died at the theatre and the Electricity Company of Ghana has also said there was no power outage on the day of the alleged operation.

Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Information and Presidential Affairs, on Thursday, repeated that Mr Pratt lied about the cause of death of Mrs Ampadu.

"It is a matter of extreme regret that Mr Pratt should traumatise the family of the late Gladys Ampadu in such an irresponsible and cavalier manner," he said in a statement in Accra.

"It is a matter of even greater regret that when the truth was told to him, instead of him going back to check his story he rather continues to defend and more widely broadcast the lie," he added.

The minister attached the official report from the Ghana Health Service on the death and a statement from the Electricity Company of Ghana that there was no power outage that affected the hospital on June 7 or 8.

The statement said the stand-by generator at the Ridge Hospital is in a poor state that requires a new one but added that the hospital's stand-by battery unit was sufficient to deal with the situation.

A report from Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, stated that no surgery was performed on the patient, neither was there a power outage.

It said laboratory results clearly indicate that the patient did not have typhoid fever and therefore, could not have had typhoid peforation as alleged by Mr Pratt. The report said the cause of death was Gastroenteritis.

It said the patient's out-patient and inpatient records, nurses notes and treatment management sheets are available and so is the medical cause of death certificate.