Korle Bu workers protest against management
Members of the Senior Staff Association and nurses of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital yesterday embarked upon a peaceful march in solidarity with the leaders of the association who were given query letters by the board and management of the hospital for insubordination.
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Wearing red bands around their heads, necks and arms, the about 200 members of staff matched on the street in Korle Bu to present a letter, containing responses to the query, to management.
The board and management of Korle Bu queried the leaders of the association for calling for the resignation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the hospital, Dr Gilbert Buckle, and bringing the name of the hospital into disrepute by accusing the management of incurring huge judgement debts.
But the response letter presented to the Director of Human Resource of Korle Bu, Mr Samuel Akotuah Atweri, denied all the allegations.
Allegations
The leadership declined to give copies of the letter to journalists, but in an interview with the Daily Graphic, the President of the association, Mr Charles Ofei Palm, who presented the letter, said they had responded to all the allegations in the query.
He said the association did not bring the name of the hospital into disrepute on the issue of the judgement debts, and that the association was just cautioning management not to incur further judgement debts to worsen the situation of the hospital.
On the calls for the resignation of the CEO, Mr Palm said 89.1 per cent of the members of the association had voted that he should resign because of poor performance, including his inability to supply the various wards with the needed equipment for operations.
He also said the association was still insistent that the CEO should resign since he had demonstrated that he could not help Korle Bu.
Mr Palm dismissed suggestions that Korle Bu was gaining notoriety for always calling for the head of CEOs, considering the fact Dr Buckle had been in office for a little over one year.
He said it did not matter the length of time that the CEO had been in office, and that once he could not perform, he had to give way for the one who could do the work.
No fear of intimidation
Speaking during the presentation of the letter at the administration block of the hospital, Mr Palm said the leaders of the association spoke on behalf of the members and that any attack on the leaders was an attack on the association.