The Greater Accra Chairman of the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), Jefferson Asare, has raised serious concerns about the credibility of the Ridge Hospital assault investigation, accusing the committee of failing to speak to the doctor who initially assessed the injured nurse.
The Health Ministry’s investigative committee, chaired by Dr. Lawrence Ofori-Boadu, concluded that there was no medical evidence of a dislocation or fracture following the incident. The report 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.
Reacting to the committee’s final report on Channel One TV’s The Point of View on Wednesday August 27, Mr. Asare stated that the very medical officer who examined Rejoice Tsotso Bortei—a rotation nurse allegedly assaulted at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital was completely left out of the investigative process.
“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 is here and the medical report that was written and stamped—I have it. The doctor’s name is here. That doctor was not interviewed,” Mr. Asare asserted.
He insisting the original diagnosis was not made by nurses or even the alleged victim but by a senior medical officer at the facility—information confirmed during a meeting with hospital leadership.
“The dislocation was not said by any nurse or any other person than the medical director of Ridge Hospital when we met the medical director,” he explained. “It wasn’t the nurse that diagnosed the dislocation. It was a senior medical officer who saw the lady on the Monday morning.”
He also questioned the rationale behind the committee’s choice of interviewees.
“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.”
According to Mr. Asare, the nurse was initially diagnosed with ‘poly contusion,’ a medical term used to describe multiple bruises or contusions involving pain, redness, and swelling at the site of injury.
“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 clarified.
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