Korle-Bu Hospital Turns Away Patient �

For the third time in about a month, Simon Agboe has been denied health care at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH). Mr. Agboe, who is suffering from a cardiovascular disease, was referred from the Cocoa Clinic in Accra to KBTH, but was told there are no beds at the emergency unit of the Cardiothoracic Centre where he was expected to be admitted. His condition had since been deteriorating as he moves from one health facility to the other just to seek medical care. When The Ghanaian Times paid him a visit in his house at the weekend, Mr. Agboe, complained of difficulty in breathing and not able to walk for short distances. His swollen feet looked whitish, and his knees and thighs have become swollen and is unable to put on trousers. Looking frail, weak and drowsy, Agboe said: �I cannot walk, breath well, and I find it very difficult to sleep.� Asked what he was told by the doctor the first day he visited the Cocoa Clinic, he said �my brother, the doctor who attended to me said one part of my heart is swollen.� He said the Cocoa Clinic, where he first visited for medical examination, referred him to KBTH on December 24, 2014, but, �to my surprise, the Cocoa Clinic knowing too well my condition required immediate attention, allowed me to go to the Korle-Bu on my own.� Before he was referred to KBTH, Mr. Agboe went through a series of x-ray scanning on December 24, 2014. He said on reaching Korle-Bu the same day, he was checked by the nurse on duty, but was told he could not be admitted because there are no beds. Again on January 16, this year he went back to KBTH, and he was told the same story as before-there are no beds. As his condition worsened, he said he went back to Cocoa Clinic on Friday where he was advised to check either Accra Ridge Hospital or 37 Military Hospital for admission. According to him the clinic authorities explained to him that his ailment was above them so he should go back to Korle-bu. He said Korle-bu again denied him access so with his referral note in hand he decided to go to Ridge Hospital. The story was not different at the Ridge Hospital as a health assistant told him the facility was unable to admit because of the lack of beds. As he stepped out a few meters, the health assistant accosted him and asked him to return because the doctor wanted to see him. After brief examination, he was put on admission a few hours and was again asked to go home and return the following day for further examination. On Saturday, January 17, he managed to undergo another test but he was again told that there was no bed for his admission. �I am awaiting the results of the current test, but my brother it is the same test I have gone through at the Cocoa Clinic for several months now,� he said. Mr. Agboe appealed to the hospital authorities to give him the necessary health care to save his life.