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When I demanded my receipt for the drugs purchased from one of the pharmacies, the medical staff on duty threatened to take back the drugs and return my money. I stood up to that insisting I will not be punished for requesting for my receipt.

After the ensuing argument, one of the medical staff that assumed responsibility for the transactions going on said to me “this is why people like you would die here… ... You can report to the C.E.O.”.  Eventually, he ended his outbursts by calling me “idiot”.

Think about it. Doesn’t it take an idiot to be demanding a receipt and actually arguing for it when his ward is prepared and waiting to be ushered into the surgical theatre? Even more, for a place like Korle-Bu where some people have been working for over twenty years, doesn’t it take an idiot to want to and actually report the case especially when his ward is still on admission?

Let us look at the idiocy from other angles now. How about this? Doesn’t it take an idiot to go to the Korle-Bu Teaching hospital without contacting his friends who work there beforehand? As a matter of fact, in a country where whom-you-know is juicy and having the C.E.O as a friend and colleague, it would have been convenient to make some contact ahead of arrival.

Who knows if it could have yielded some high level endorsed chaperon services or some staff may have been awaiting my arrival like is done in some places. I knew also a nurse in the medical block. I had third party links to the laboratory manager if that became necessary and even though that party is now in London, we had even discussed the prospect of mentioning him if need be. My ward’s dad, a retiree, had actually worked in Korle-Bu and still has colleagues in there. He still belongs to some professional council in which some of the Korle-Bu staff are members. My ward’s close cousin works as one of administrators there too.

So, why would people with such heavy, well-knitted connections to the institution want to go through the hassle of routine procedures and processes when they could get some help? Na our own matter, abi?

It takes idiots is the answer I found after the encounter with the medical staff at the pharmacy.

All of the persons (nurse, C.E.O, my ward, my ward’s dad, administrator – my ward’s cousin, third party link, laboratory manager, and myself) I have referred to above are persons known to believe in letting the system work and this is basically why using whom-you-know was not an option in the first place. Considering the environment we live in today, these persons must be idiots yet it would take such ‘idiots’ with such attitudes to keep our country going in the right way. If such ‘idiotic’ attitudes would be encouraged, practiced, maintained and sustained, there would be no discrimination resulting from nepotism, cronyism or any isms. Simply, systems would work the way they should.

The story continues… I took an ‘idiotic’ decision to call the medical staff’s bluff and really report the matter to the C.E.O., as requested during his tantrums. When he [C.E.O] had accustomed himself to the matter, he referred it to the appropriate quarters and I was called by the Deputy Director of Pharmacy who proceeded with an interview or call it an investigation.

The fallouts were interesting but in summary it reposed confidence in a hitherto despaired customer and Ghanaian who has been wondering what has become of our country and especially our people.

Our people, who have been trained, retrained, and placed in positions of trust to professionally engage and at worst manage customers/clients, end up behaving in ways that make you wonder what happened to their basic human selves. Worse of all, they are paid with our taxes to carry out these jobs but they end up becoming lords, czars, who sit in palanquins on the shoulders of the very people they are to render services to.

It is worse when such is experienced in a medical facility where a patient and his or her attendants have the medical institution as the only refugee camp standing between them, their lives and death. As it turned out in our (my ward and I) case, the experiences in Korle-Bu pointed to one thing; some staff were there because they are there to work. It did not matter what their jobs stood for. While we managed our collywobbles by ourselves, they added to our anxiety by their actions and inactions.

The sad part is that when a willing management calls the personnel to order in an ‘idiotic’ style (I guess), there would be hue and cry from near and far.  Looking at the changed demeanour of the staff in question (in my case) when he was summoned to a meeting, I wondered where the tiger in him had gone. How itinerated and apologetic he had become in the presence of his managers and almost losing his voice in his attempt to be dysphemistic or politically correct. Who knows if it was all what we term ‘fanfoo respect’ or not? All of these would have been avoided if he had initially resorted to a professional approach.  Thank God there are ‘idiots’ to report and there are equally some more ‘idiots’ who have the belief that things can change for the better and would use their positions to ensure it happens.

These kinds of ‘idiots’ are Ghanaians as well and do see what happen around but principle and resolve to follow due process no matter how inconveniencing is just the right way to go.

Well, as a matter of principle and without any personal attachments, I have taken another decision to be of support to any system that requires and desires to put it right despite the environment and attitude we are used to.  From my encounter with some of the management staff of Korle-Bu and my interactions with the C.E.O especially, there is hope.

I heard a wild story about Iddi Amin once wanting to change the name Uganda to Iddi. In the story, he did not go ahead because his advisor ‘educated’ him that citizens of Cyprus, for example, were called Cypriots.  As such he feared that the citizens of a country named Iddi would be referred to as Iddiots.  If this was true, the advisor must have been an idiot to have ventured such advice considering all the horrific stories you hear about Iddi Amin. If it was true, this ‘idiot’ served a good purpose.

If it is to do the right thing, be one such idiot.

 

 

The poem below, was a sum of things that went through me while I sat at the surgical block and observed the goings on – 11th March 2015. It was initially called Dormitories of Death but later renamed Korle-Bu

 

They are manned

By supposedly trained

Skillful professionals

Professionals?

Somewhat!

 

They are built

With bricks of cement,

Rods and expensive fittings

And oiled with oil paints

That safeguard permanent dirt

Yet court heat

 

Supposed to save,

The sick

The weak

Provide health and hope

Yet have they become,

Dormitories of Death?

In the hands,

Mostly of unethical, uncaring, unbothered,

Unperturbed, disgruntled,

Self-interested staff?

 

But they aren’t just meant

To be skilled or professional?

Theirs must be a CALLING

A calling graced with training and skill

Moulded into professionals

 

But do they court,

The right attitude

To remain,

Professional

Skilled

Helpful

Called

Savers?