Pharmacist and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD‑Ghana) Fellow Kwame Sarpong Asiedusays the recently dismissed Chief Executive of Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) forfeited the moral right to sympathy because he stayed in post while the facility crumbled around him.
Appearing on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday night, 23 April, Asiedu argued that health leaders who remain quiet—or cling to office—when irrefutable evidence shows patient safety is compromised become part of the problem. “That’s why I struggle to defend the sacked CEO,” he told host Abubakar Ibrahim, insisting a principled professional should have resigned the moment systemic failure became undeniable.
Asiedu anchored his critique on the Health Harmonisation Assessment Report, an exhaustive review of Ghana’s health‐care infrastructure commissioned by the government, Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, the Global Fund and the World Health Organisation. The assessment, aligned with WHO’s Holistic Programme of Work model, paints a dire picture: only five per cent of consulting rooms nationwide possess the basic equipment required for accurate diagnosis. “Those are not my figures,” he stressed. “They are in the report all of us—including the Pharmaceutical Society president and the GMA leadership—have read.”
Yet, he lamented, successive administrations have “jettisoned” those findings, funnelling money into politically attractive hospital construction instead of fixing elementary deficiencies such as diagnostic tools, supply chains and maintenance. That diversion of funds, he said, reflects entrenched “political dishonesty” that professionals themselves enable when they bite their tongues.
For Asiedu, the TTH saga epitomises that failure of professional courage. Remaining in charge of a “non‑functional” institution, he argued, contradicted every warning in the assessment, made the CEO complicit and ultimately pitted him against Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh during the minister’s recent tour of the hospital. “How did you sit down when those reports say what they say?” Asiedu asked rhetorically. “If management decisions violate the data, we should walk away. It’s that simple.”
He acknowledged the same charge could be levelled at many health practitioners, himself included, but claimed he chose to speak out publicly when the assessment emerged. Ghana’s health crisis, he concluded, stems not from ignorance but from a deficit of integrity: “We have the data, but we behave as though we don’t. That is the real betrayal.” Until professionals refuse to legitimise dysfunctional systems, he warned, dangerous gaps in patient care will persist—no matter how many new hospital blocks politicians cut ribbons for.
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