Inappropriate medical conduct

The story about a medical doctor turning away a dying child does not conform to the tradition of the medical profession. According to the story in yesterday’s edition of this paper, an Agona Swedru Government Hospital doctor snubbed a dying nine-year-old child who was brought to the hospital by the mother.

According to Lily De Sossa, the mother of the child, she was compelled as a result to drive to the Kaneshie Polyclinic for attention – a journey which could have cost her the life of the kid.

The doctor’s reason for turning away the sick child was because according to the mother, he was going to attend a church service.

We are not part of the clergy but we are convinced beyond doubt that the doctor’s action is not in tandem with Christian principles. A life was at risk of being lost and a doctor who swore the Hippocratic Oath took the unseemly decision of abandoning the poor child and the mother because he had to be in church? We think that the pastor on duty at the church would have turned away the doctor, had he known what he had done.

What if the child had died? What would the conscience of the doctor have done to him? We are pleased to learn that the aggrieved woman is turning to the General Medical and Dental Council for redress.

Not doing anything about the misconduct, which was exactly what the doctor did, would be setting a bad precedence in medical practice.

We recall a similar incident taking place at one of the public hospitals in Accra a few years ago. A doctor on duty when a child was brought, said he had closed and could not therefore, take care of the kid.

It would seem as if there were a few bad nuts in the medical profession who really do not belong to this noble occupation which requires both sacrifice and compassion as attributes.

We have confidence in the regulatory authority to do justice to this rather dangerous misconduct. Anybody who encounters any of such unwanted elements in the medical profession should report them to the Council for the appropriate action.

There is no excuse whatsoever to warrant the turning away of somebody in need of medical attention.

Those who do not have the temperament and the necessary compassion required in medicine have no business being there. That is the fact of the matter.
Only an investigation and the necessary responses from the Council can isolate the facts of the matter.