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Doctors at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) have halted all emergency and outpatient services indefinitely following what they describe as “unwarranted attacks” from Ghana’s Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, and the Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini.
The action was announced after an emergency general assembly meeting held by the Doctors’ Association of Tamale Teaching Hospital (DATTH) on Wednesday, April 23. This decision closely followed a public condemnation by the association of an incident involving the minister during his visit to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Unit the previous day.
“All members of DATTH have proceeded on an indefinite suspension of all emergency and outpatient services (General OPD, Antenatal clinic, Specialist clinic, Paediatrics OPD),” the Association revealed in a statement.
Despite this suspension, the doctors clarified that inpatient services will continue uninterrupted until all patients currently admitted are discharged safely.
The doctors are demanding unconditional apologies from both the Health Minister and the Tamale North MP. These apologies, they say, should be directed to Dr. Valentine Akwulpwa, the entire medical team at TTH, and especially the staff at the Accident and Emergency department.
“We shall resume provision of emergency and outpatient services after we receive appropriate apologies,” DATTH declared.
In addition to the apologies, the association submitted a list of urgent infrastructural and logistical needs to hospital management. These include access to consistent water supply, stable electricity, continuous oxygen availability, and basic medical essentials such as gloves, gauze, cotton, face masks, syringes, cannulae, disinfectants, and plaster.
They also emphasized the need for a steady supply of laboratory reagents, vital signs monitors, ventilators across departments, transport incubators, and prompt repairs to key equipment including autoclave machines.
For longer-term improvements, the doctors are requesting diagnostic and critical care technology such as a helium-free MRI machine, a CT scan with an infusion pump, mammography and fluoroscopy units, a C-arm machine, arterial blood gas (ABG) analyzers, and mobile X-ray systems.
The association made it clear that their members are unwilling to continue working in what they called a hostile environment, stressing safety concerns. They also criticized certain media outlets for what they described as biased and inaccurate reporting on recent developments, stating they will no longer engage with those platforms until public apologies are made.
While expressing a willingness to maintain dialogue with hospital authorities, DATTH issued a final caution: if swift action is not taken to address their grievances, they will be forced to “advise themselves.”
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