Health Ministry Holds Emergency Meeting Over Ankaful Impasse

The Ministry of Health will today [Friday], hold an emergency meeting to fashion out a strategy to deal with the impasse at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region.

The Ministry hopes to resolve the growing resentment of staff of the facility against their director, Dr. Eugene Dordoye, which has seen the staff declaring a strike for the second time.

The staff say Dr. Dordoye’s presence at the facility poses a danger to their mental and physical health.

Among other things, they accused him of putting them through emotional and psychological stress.

Although the Mental Health Authority has urged the staff to reconsider their decision, they insist they will not return to work until Dr. Dordoye is finally removed from the facility.

The Public Relations Officer for the Ministry of Health, Robert Cudjoe, in a Citi News interview said that the emergency meeting today [Friday] will help to bring closure on the matter so as not to further jeopardize mental health care at the facility.

“It is a worrying situation. The minister is calling an emergency meeting [on Friday] to take a decisive decision on this matter. His demeanor and management style is not one that we can write home about. We thought that we can talk to him to be of good behavior. In fact his administration is not bad, he has managed the facility well, there is discipline now. But I think his attitude towards staff is not one of the best,” Robert Cudjoe said.

‘Human relation courses’

The embattled Medical Director, Eugene Dordoye, is currently undertaking some courses to improve his interpersonal and human relation skills.

This is according to Mental Health Authority which has urged the staff to back down on their action, arguing that they will have a legitimate concern if after the courses, Dr. Dordoye persists with his poor human relations.

‘Medical Director will not be removed’

The striking health professionals embarked on an industrial action in 2017 over the same matter, but the government said removing the director will set a bad precedent.

“I don’t think if we go on that tangent, it will help anybody because it may set a precedent which will not help this nation at all. If staff get up and start agitating that they want a director [sacked] and a Minister goes by that decision and takes him away, it is going to set a precedent for others to follow suit,” the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health, Robert Cudjoe said in an interview.

Source: Citifmonline