Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has refuted claims that the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) was dismissed due to a confrontation with Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh during a recent inspection of the facility.
The Health Minister paid an unannounced visit to the Northern Region’s premier referral hospital on Tuesday to assess service delivery and investigate issues related to the controversial death of a 31-year-old man, Salim, over the weekend.
The inspection uncovered a string of infrastructural and operational challenges. Several critical machines—including ventilators in the emergency unit, diagnostic and sterilization equipment.
MRI scanners, were found to be non-functional, prompting public concern and media backlash.
Amid the fallout, reports circulated that the CEO of the hospital had been sacked due to an altercation captured on video between the Minister and a medical professional during the inspection.
However, speaking on *Morning Starr* with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, Suhuyini, who is also the Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, clarified that the doctor involved in the altercation is not the CEO of the hospital.
He explained that the doctor in question is widely respected for his dedication and professionalism, and has made several sacrifices to keep the hospital running.
According to Suhuyini, the misunderstanding arose during a conversation in which the doctor described the public reaction to Salim’s death as being “blown out of proportion.”
Suhuyini emphasized that the decision to relieve the CEO of his post had no connection to the incident captured on video.
He said, “And let me, up in issue, establish the point that the doctor seen in the video is not the CEO. I mean, the gentleman in the video is not the CEO of the teaching hospital.
And that gentleman has not been sacked, hasn’t been suspended. Nothing has happened administratively, as far as I know, to that gentleman. The CEO is different from this gentleman who was in the video. But you see, what you see in the video, in my view, highlights the attitude that people have complained about at the hospital. And I’ll tell you how this all happened. That gentleman in the video is one of the dedicated and hardworking doctors of the hospital. He’s made several sacrifices, we understand, to keep the hospital running. And his professionalism is above, it cannot be questioned. People in the region actually respect him because of how dedicated and committed he is to, you know, patients and relatives as well when they come to the place.”
“And yesterday, in the interaction with the minister, he, you know, was brilliant in stating the problems that they go through, especially at the emergency ward, the red zone, and spoke of how, you know, the gentleman came to the gentleman who passed recently, was brought to the emergency ward, and the difficulties under which they tried to save his life, but unfortunately could not do that. But in the course of his narration, he made, I mean, he used a certain phrase, let me put it that way. He said, and I quote, I do not even understand why this matter, this matter, referring to the death of the gentleman is blown out of proportion.”
“He did not understand why it was blown out of proportion. That’s when I stepped in as a representative of the people to caution him, that Doc, you have done so well so far, but please do not, you know, make that statement again. One life lost is enough to be blown out of proportion so that other lives will be saved. So don’t make that statement again, that you do not understand why this is blown out of proportion. That was the caution to him. Unfortunately, he stuck to his position, that it was simply blown out of proportion. And so the dismissal of the CEO has absolutely nothing to do with the altercation that you saw online that is trending. And the gentleman in that is not the CEO. So I don’t see how that will impact on the psyche of health professionals at the hospital.”
