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“Obour didn’t disclose possible Covid-19 status of his father”–Ambulance Service

Highly placed sources within the Ghana National Ambulance Service have denied claims by musician, Bice Osei Kuffour, popularly known as Obour, that the status of his father’s possible 2019 novel coronavirus infection was disclosed to the ambulance service team that took him to the hospital.

Obour’s father died at the Greater Accra Regional (Ridge) Hospital on Friday after he tested positive for Covid-19. The former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, and an NPP parliamentary, said the Covid-19 test results of his father had not come out when his condition worsened. He said he was advised to call the NAS  to take him to the Ridge Hospital when he went to the Legon Hospital to see a doctor about his father’s condition.

Obour’s father has died of coronavirus

Some health workers at the hospital, as reported by Joy FM, said they had not been told about Obour’s father’s full symptoms, and his travel history in order to enable them to take full precautions against the dreaded Covid-19.

His father was not taken to the Covid-19 centre at the hospital when he got there on Thursday night until he died later on Friday. The Ridge Hospital is one of two health facilities designated for Covid-19 cases even before Ghana recorded its first case.

The musician has issued a statement denying Joy FM’s report. He said he made the disclosure even to the Ghana National Ambulance Service staff who sent his father to the hospital.

On Saturday morning, theghanareport.com‘s editorial consultant, Manasseh Azure Awuni, crosschecked Obour’s claims from the ambulance service.

According to a highly placed source within the ambulance service, it was not true that the full symptoms and travel history of Obour’s father were disclosed to the staff who went to pick the patient to the hospital.

The source told theghanareport.com that the ambulances service had refrained from going public on the matter because the service was adhering to strict professional ethics and did not want to go to the media to divulge all information about the clients they dealt with.

The source, however, said Obour’s information was not true because the ambulance service had instituted strict protocols concerning Covid-19, and every ambulance station was aware of this, They, the source said, would not breach the protocols for their own safety.

According to the source, it was the ambulance service station at Atomic which picked Obuor’s father to the hospital.

It said if there had been any disclosure that linked the Obour’s father to a suspected Covid-19 case, the Atomic ambulance station would not have handled the case in the first place.

According to the source, every region had a Covid-19 ambulance response team, and these were the only teams that were equipped to handle suspected cases of Covid-19. The old ambulances, according to the source, were used for this purpose.

The source further said anytime someone called the ambulance service line, questions were asked and if there was a possible link to Covid-19, the ambulance service station detailed for that purpose would be dispatched.

“The information given to the ambulances team was that the man was diabetic and had difficulty in breathing. This is a common symptom, and there was no reason to suspect that the case was related to Covid-19,” the source said.

“Once a team has any reason to suspect that a case is possibly linked to Covid-19, that team withdraws and calls the Covid-19 team to deal with it,” the source said.

After speaking with sources within the Ambulance Service, Manasseh Azure Awuni spoke to Obour about what the Ambulance Service had said about his claim that he had disclosed fully to them his father’s condition and travel history.

He said he was surprised the  National Ambulance Service had denied knowing about it. He said when the story came out, he reached out to the service to come to his defence because he knew he had told them the entire details about his father’s condition.

Obour said the NAS officials told him that per their records, what they heard when he (Obour) called before dispatching the Atomic Ambulance Station team was that his father “was diabetic and had difficulty breathing.”

He said he personally called the National Ambulance Service and when the team came to the house to pick his father, he was present with them. He said he asked them why they hadn’t come in their full Covid-19 apparel, and they said they would see the patient first.

He said when they got into the house and saw his father and he told them that his father had been tested for Covid-19 and the result was not yet out; they got back to the ambulance to wear gloves and nose masks before attending to his father. They disinfected afterwards, he said.

At the hospital, before the ambulance staff left, Obour said one of them came to give him (Obour) his (the Ambulance Service staff’s) number.

“The ambulance guys told me I should call them when the results came and was positive , so that they should quarantine. The one who gave me his number is called Isaac and I saved it as Isaac Ambulance Kwabenya” Obour said.

“He too is saying the same thing his boss told me. So my question is, if he didn’t know about the travel history and Covid-19 test, why did he say I should call him when the test was out?” Obour said.

He revealed that he and his brother had tested together with their father because they had been close to him and their results proved negative, while their father was positive.

He maintained he had told the triage nurse at the Ridge Hospital the full details of his father’s medical history, including the fact that he had returned from the United Kingdom recently, shortly before the mandatory quarantine.

He said some people at the Ambulance Service and the Ridge Hospital had been negligent in the line of duty and wanted to cover up and put the blame on him.

NO PART OF THIS STORY SHOULD BE COPIED OR REWRITTEN WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE EDITOR OF THEGHANAREPORT.COM. THE EDITOR, EDWIN APPIAH CAN BE REACHED ON 0266731420. 

22 Comments
  1. Anonymous says

    Is possible for such emergency calls to be recorded as done elsewhere?

    1. Anonymous says

      Is it possible for such emergency calls to be recorded by the NAS as done elsewhere for records?

      1. Anonymous says

        Good question.

        1. Noneed says

          What was that obur doing the next day at the hospital claiming the dead man’s body.
          For one doesn’t he know he needs to isolate himself and that the deadman’s body needs to be handled just like they did with the Ebola bodied?

      2. Anonymous says

        o

  2. Anonymous says

    But the question is why take him to a hospital emergency if you suspected it was the covid-19? Didn’t he hear of isolation centres?
    He was negligent in risking other people’s lives.

    1. Julius says

      That is the job of the doctors and nurses to figure out. Obour is no health personell.

      Ghana, no sense of responsibility

  3. Anonymous says

    You do not have to know the status of your client to adhere to standards.

    1. Anonymous says

      There are different precautionary measures for barrier care of patients. Standard, droplets and airborne precautionary measures.

    2. Anonymous says

      Thank you. I need not say mine

      1. Anonymous says

        Precisely so. As a health professional, you have to identify the symptoms and follow the necessary protocol. What if he had no travel history but exhibited similar symptoms? Who would you have to blame then. This in no way condones a deliberate withholding of vital information that puts several people at risk.

    3. Anonymous says

      My point exactly

  4. Anonymous says

    That’s why a short code is required. People will forget the long numbers in times of emergency. He probably heard of the isolation centres but forgot the numbers

  5. Anonymous says

    Where are the isolation centers? What protocols should one observe in taking someone to these isolation places? Has the govt made this clear to everyone,?

  6. Anonymous says

    Obuor should be jailed for negligence period. No one is above the law. Risking health workers as such should not be tolerated, not elsewhere and not in Ghana either.

  7. Anonymous says

    When a suspected sample is taken the covid 19 test. The person does not go home to wait for result. The person remains isolated in the hospital till results is out.

    1. Anonymous says

      A very good point

  8. Anonymous says

    Who are those “HIGHLY PLACED SOURCES”? If what he’s saying is not the truth, what’s stopping the ambulance services from issuing a statement to that effect? Me nkotse ah, highly placed sources. Rubbish.

  9. Anonymous says

    So who is telling the truth? Even at this point where we should be submissive to God we’re stil telling tales or fables.God save us by forgiven Us.

  10. Kobby says

    How come the man on entering Ghana was able to sidestep the protocol and taken all the way to Juaso instead of being quarantined in Accra awaiting the Covid 19 test results? Is it because he is a father of a celebrity? This means the system is biased and some people have allowed this to go on. Which other people who have come to Ghana through the ports have been allowed to do this? This is the no 1 question we should ask.

  11. Anonymous says

    Obuor need to be quarantine since he had contact with the father immeadiately

    1. Anonymous says

      yes thats true

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