From George Folley, Wa
An eye screening and cataract surgery scheduled to take place in the Lawra, Jirapa, Nandom and Lambussie areas in the Upper West Region has been called off due to the alleged refusal of the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Alexis Nang-Beifuba, to sanction it.
It was alleged that Dr Nang-Beifuba’s reason for not allowing the screening to take place was that he had not been consulted.
As a result of this, 200 people who were to benefit from the exercise, sponsored by the Ghana International Women’s Club, have their fate hanging in the balance.
According to Dr Thomas Tontie Baah, the ophthalmologist who was to undertake the exercise with the support of his three American eye specialists friends who had travelled from the United States to Wa, after several attempts without success, he decided to call it off.
Giving the background to the issue, he said on November 5, 2009, he wrote a letter to the Minister of Health through the regional director with the intention to carry out the exercise in conjunction with Dr Seth Wanye and Dr Felix Ahorsu who are the Northern and Upper West regional ophthalmologists, respectively at the Lawra Government Hospital.
He said the exercise could not come on for unforeseen circumstances.
Dr Baah said he then contacted the Wa Islamic Hospital which readily agreed to release its facilities for the exercise and also went ahead to invite the three American eye specialists to enable them acquire Ghanaian visas to travel down to Ghana.
He said, after the arrival of the Americans, February 15 to March 15, 2010 was fixed for the exercise.
“We arrived at the weekend when all was set for the exercise and when I went to inform him of our presence in the region, he was very hostile towards us for not informing him and warned us not to undertake the exercise since he was neither consulted nor involved. Ironically, we were mates at the Medical School and all Upper Westerners and I thought he would put aside any ill-feelings, just for the sake of our people”.
I have not done anything wrong to warrant this and I expected him to treat me as a brother. May be, he has a personal grudge against me but this should not be to the detriment of the people”, he lamented
Dr Baah, therefore, called on people who have the Upper West at heart to prevail upon Dr Nang-Beifubah to change his hostile attitude towards the exercise.
When contacted, Dr Nang-Beifubah said Dr Baah did not pass through the right channel before coming to the region.
He said after writing to the eye care secretariat in Accra on his intention to undertake the exercise, Dr Baah should have waited for the go ahead but did not and therefore, flouted the laid down procedure.
“In any case, Dr Baah is from Tumu in the Sissala East district and should better come home to serve his people rather than undertake such exercises”, he added.
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