Health Minister should apologise to Frimpong Boateng - Dep. Min

Deputy Minister for Environment, Science and Technology, Dr Edward Omane Boamah has urged the Minister of Health, Hon. Yieleh Chireh to render an apology to the Honorary Director of the National Cardiothoracic Center, Prof. Frimpong Boateng, if necessary.

He believes the most appropriate thing for the minister to do is to perhaps express his regret for certain harsh words that were contained in the letter which asked Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng to, with immediate effect, consider his appointment duly terminated.

The dismissal of Prof. Frimpong Boateng was met with scorn and protestations from the medical association with doctors at the Cardio Centre laying down their tools in solidarity with their sacked boss. The doctors sent a petition to the president requesting that the then status quo be restored.

Government acknowledged that the Health Minister erred in his dismissal letter to the director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, stressing that the “Health Minister’s letter could have been better” worded.

Dr. Omane Boamah who appeared on Tuesday, August 30 edition of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana show stated that as humans, no matter your position, when you err, it is necessary to do the right thing by apologizing.

“The Health Minister is not in town but I sincerely feel that the most appropriate thing to do perhaps is to call Prof. Frimpong Boateng and maybe express regret for certain harsh words that were contained in the letter. We are human beings, minister or whatever, when you have done something and the generality of our country think that it is wrong, we must be humble enough to do what is right by apologizing,” he said.

He also conceded that Prof. Frimpong Boateng’s dismissal letter did not naturally give explicit room for any form of handing over.

“In terms of saying his appointment is terminated with immediate effect, it doesn’t naturally give explicit room for handing over and so if he also wants to stick to the letter of the minister, he will just pack his bag and baggage and go home like he did,” he added.

Dr. Omane Boamah, who is a medical practitioner by profession, recounted less pleasant experiences he shared at the hands of Professor Frimpong-Boateng.

According to him, he was the only one in his class who was refused his second year house job after his first year when Prof. Frimpong Boateng was the then Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital. He said out of the class of many, he (the spokesperson for the Junior Doctors Association) was the only person who did not receive an appointment letter to continue his second year house job even though he very qualified.

“I was the spokesperson for Junior Doctors Association in 2006; when we (my batch) completed our first year house job, the whole class applied to be readmitted for the second year house job and of all my class mates and all the doctors who were doing their first year house job and wanted to move on to second year house job, I was the only doctor who was not given appointment letter and Prof. Frimpong Boateng was the CEO at Korle-Bu but I didn’t make noise about it. It was after seven months into the second house job before I was invited to come and work but I had moved on by then,” he narrated.

Dr. Omane Boamah further revealed that the renowned heart surgeon also sacked a whole group of house officers who had been appointed to do their housemanship just because they requested for conditions of service before commencing work.

“The following year, there was a whole group of house officers who had been appointed to do their housemanship but they had not been given them their conditions of service so they requested for conditions of service before commencing work and he dismissed that whole batch of medical doctors, asking them to reapply just because they were asking for their conditions of service,” he added.

He, however, stressed that all these bad experiences notwithstanding, Prof. Frimpong Boateng has contributed immeasurably to medical practice in Ghana, describing him as a “Patriot par excellence”, adding that he championed a good course by establishing the Cardio center even when many of his senior colleagues in Korle Bu felt he was chasing a whirlwind.