The Greater Accra Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Jefferson Asare, has raised concerns about the credibility of the Ministry of Health’s investigative report on the alleged assault of a nurse at the Ridge Hospital.

Asare accused the committee, chaired by Dr Lawrence Ofori-Boadu, of failing to interview a key medical officer - the very doctor who first assessed the injured nurse, Rejoice Tsotso Bortei.

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Speaking on Channel One TV on Wednesday, August 27, Asare said the exclusion of the doctor undermines the integrity of the committee’s findings.

“I can say on record that the doctor that saw the lady was not even interviewed during the committee sitting. I know that for a fact because the names that were provided for people that were interviewed are here and the medical report that was written and stamped, I have it. The doctor’s name is there but he was not interviewed,” citinewsroom.com quoted him to have said during the interview.

The committee’s final report concluded that there was no medical evidence of a dislocation or fracture.

It noted that the nurse reported her injuries a day after the alleged assault, on August 18, and medical records showed no fracture in her wrist or dislocation in her shoulder.

However, Asare argued that the initial diagnosis was not made by nurses or the victim herself, but by a senior medical officer at the facility, a fact he said was confirmed during a meeting with the hospital’s leadership.

“The dislocation was not said by any nurse or any other person than the medical director of Ridge Hospital when we met him. It wasn’t the nurse that diagnosed the dislocation. It was a senior medical officer who saw the lady on the Monday morning,” he explained.

The GRNMA chairman further questioned why the committee interviewed heads of departments instead of the doctor who first examined the nurse.

“You go and interview the HOD of that department. What account will the HOD give you? You will need to interview the person who had first sight of the lady in question. Did they interview that doctor? No,” Asare asserted.

He also clarified that the nurse was initially diagnosed with “poly contusion,” a condition describing multiple bruises or contusions associated with pain, redness and swelling at the injury site.

“When we say poly contusion, what do we mean? It simply means that there is swelling, there is redness, there is pain at the site of the hit,” he explained.

AM/AE

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