Member of Parliament for Tamale North and Deputy Minister for Roads and Highways, Alhassan Suhuyini, has raised concerns over what he describes as an “attitudinal crisis” among staff at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).
According to him, this widespread issue partly contributed to the tense exchange between the doctor and the Minister for Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, during the recent unannounced visit to the hospital.
The Health Minister had toured the Northern Region’s premier referral facility on Tuesday to assess service delivery and probe concerns surrounding the controversial death of a 31-year-old man, Salim, over the weekend.
During the inspection, several critical machines, including ventilators at the emergency unit, diagnostic and sterilisation equipment.
Also, MRI scanners — were found to be out of service. The discovery sparked public outrage and calls for accountability.
Amid the uproar, rumours emerged that the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer had been sacked due to the confrontation captured on video between the Minister and a staff member.
However, Suhuyini, speaking on *Morning Starr* with Joshua Kodjo Mensah, clarified that the individual involved in the altercation is not the hospital’s CEO.
Suhuyini recounted that during the engagement, the doctor insisted the Salim case was “being blown out of proportion,” a comment that triggered concern.
The MP stressed that the altercation had no connection to the dismissal of the hospital’s CEO, which he said was for unrelated reasons.
He praised the doctor for candidly outlining the hospital’s dire challenges but reiterated the need for healthcare professionals to show empathy and respect in their interactions.
He said, “And I mean, the other part had to do with attitude, you know, attitude, general attitude of staff, from security to cleanliness to the health professionals. Many have complained about how appalling it is. And sometimes you have to excuse, especially the health professionals, because of the circumstances that they work under. But you cannot also ignore the sensibilities of the patients and their, you know, relatives who come to the hospital to receive care. These are clients, if for nothing at all, that deserve some understanding and some respect when they are being engaged. And one of the issues that came up that highlighted this attitudinal problem is what has gone viral, you know, on social media.”
Suhuyini continued “….Even when his chief executive officer told him to stop talking, he kept on talking and trying to explain what he meant by the matter is being blown out of proportion. And that’s when the minister, and that’s the part that you see trending on social media, that’s when the minister turned back, you know, to tell him that, gentlemen, please. So if we are your superiors and you are talking to us this way, you wouldn’t even agree that what you have said is, it can affect the sensibilities of the patient’s family.”
He added, “And we are your superiors. Can you imagine how you will respond to patients and ordinary people who come here? So stop it. What you are doing means there’s a problem here.
That’s what, that’s when the minister came in to say that, look, my brother, if you are talking to us, your superiors this way, and you will not even take advice that, don’t use that phrase again. Then you can imagine how you would talk to ordinary people who come here and have issues and complain about it. You know, so that is what that altercation is all about.
And it had nothing to do with the professionalism of the medical practitioner who (10:30) brilliantly told us the problems that they face at the hospital and the problems that they face on the day that Salim passed.”
