Charles Amissah’s Death: A lot of the blame must go to the ambulance service – Dr Yankson

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]There's a refrain.

[00:00:02]You know the hope that this will be a turning point.

[00:00:07]But I'll be frank with you.

[00:00:09]Just like the galamsey fights.

[00:00:11]I'm numb when I hear these things because nothing really changes.

[00:00:16]Yeah, we say all the good things.

[00:00:18]There's good sound bites and then end of story. The next day we move on with our lives and the situation keeps deteriorating.

[00:00:28]I know you are also interested in the hit-and-run driver which is important.

[00:00:34]So in all this conversation, we are not looking for the person who committed this crime in the first place. Yes.

[00:00:42]Okay, so Samson um My condolences once again to Charles' family, especially my colleague, you know, Dr. Mensah as well.

[00:00:55]I know this is not a good thing that should happen to any of us. But as we've all said here, we are all equally at risk. Look, in my short life, I have seen more than enough of these cases.

[00:01:10]Having been part of the medical system, being part of the medical association, the executive levels, the meetings, all the things we've gone through, I can even say that just a casual look from when the right honorable speaker was health minister, because I discussed some of these things relating to no bed syndrome with him in his office for a long period.

[00:01:34]Up till date, every single health minister, every single government has had issues relating to this no bed syndrome thing.

[00:01:45]And till date, we haven't resolved them.

[00:01:48]So your your question is quite instructive.

[00:01:51]Are we really sure? And I'm not surprised you are not optimistic.

[00:01:56]That is the reality.

[00:01:57]We've gone through this countless times.

[00:02:00]We've lost a lot of people in the process.

[00:02:04]The speeches will be made, some will be scapegoats, but most likely we may end up on the same good old road or bad. I remember when the issue of the 111 hospitals came up.

[00:02:17]You sat here and we asked the question.

[00:02:19]So, the hospitals that are there in the first place don't seem to have what they need and we're going to build 111. Now, there's a new government that has come in. It does appear it is abandoning that whole project and building its own and will build them all over the place and they will not be they will not be equipped for anything. So, so you see the systemic challenges that we all talk about that others want to just sweep under the carpet. Look, that is the biggest problem we have. If you don't take a very critical look and we also don't take a very proactive decision that from today we are going to fix this problem once and for all, we'll end up the same way.

[00:03:00]Over the years, the Medical Association has sent a lot of papers, we've done public lectures, annual general meetings, I've been on this. So, look, emergency care in Ghana is that bad.

[00:03:12]Yes, some efforts have been made, I have to admit. Even on the personnel level, now we are training a lot more emergency physicians and what have you.

[00:03:21]But, the challenges are there. We need to address them. Now, let let's go to the key issues.

[00:03:28]The first thing was who killed Mhm.

[00:03:30]Charles Emisa? That was the question of the day. Yeah, that's the question.

[00:03:33]>> And as you said, I discussed with you earlier that I am quite surprised that if you look at the chain of causation, the very person who started this whole activity leading to his unfortunate death. The hit and The whole country, including the media, nobody even wants to talk about it.

[00:03:52]And I find that very, very distressing because for me, by now the MTTU, the Ghana Police Service, the Road Safety Commission, and all the related, you know state agencies should be telling us who started this chain of causation and what has actually happened to that person.

[00:04:12]If as of today we do not know, I want Joy Multimedia to go on a crusade. Let's also get these bodies to also start working and tell us who caused this. Else, a committee should also be put in place to also investigate those same bodies so that we can have a proper reset of the system.

[00:04:34]You see, if we keep maiming people on the roads and we don't do anything about what is happening at that end, that preventive bit no matter what we do at the hospital bed end, we'll always be swamped and in the process some of the patients may be lost unfortunately as it has happened. So, for me, I'm throwing a big challenge to the state.

[00:04:56]The state should ask questions from the IGP through all the related people. They should start telling us when they are going to arrest this rider or driver.

[00:05:06]In this report it says a motor bike.

[00:05:10]>> Yeah.

[00:05:11]Earlier we had a hit-and-run driver, what have you. Whoever was doing that, we need answers. There are cameras all over Accra.

[00:05:19]Right? Around Kwame Nkrumah Circle where the issue happened. There are cameras there. And I think that we should give them very limited time to come up with answers and let's see whoever caused this problem being also taken through the right processes. Now, those who were to be who were to come into the rescue mission are facing consequences. This is akin to somebody taking a gun shooting somebody because at that time the vehicle or the motorbike was a weapon.

[00:05:46]You shoot somebody the person gets to the hospital, something includes goes wrong, the person dies, and it's the hospital who and their personnel who are responsible. The one who picked the gun to shoot is walking without any, you know, issues around him. I think we should address it.

[00:06:08]Now today, Not to excuse that person, but it does look like if he he was human.

[00:06:16]People like that, I don't think they're human. You knock someone down and you run. What are you thinking? What's going on in your mind?

[00:06:23]>> Something That is the reason why the state should have >> even appear Yes, yes.

[00:06:28]They should look for whoever it is, and that person must be punished. But it does appear if he had, you know, stopped and picked Charles, who was going to save Charles anyway?

[00:06:39]Well, the circumstances could have changed.

[00:06:43]Because, you know what? Charles would have gotten to the hospital. Yes. He needs blood. He needs something. They'll be asking, "Who who who Where is his relative? They should go here and buy some. We don't have some."

[00:06:55]When you go to the hospital with a with a patient, you literally become have to run so many errands. It is very true.

[00:07:02]You know? It is very true. You see, I'm saying the situation still could have been different because one, if that person had picked Charles to a hospital, maybe it could have been some hospital outside East Legon.

[00:07:14]You know?

[00:07:16]Prof Akosa's committee's report is a very good one, but there's one area that I think I don't know whether it was just because of the synopsis that were given.

[00:07:29]A lot of the blame, to be honest with you, should go to the ambulance service and their crew.

[00:07:34]And Prof actually did say that, "Look, what should have happened and what could have saved him from the The word wound was proper securing of the uh what we call hemostasis. You needed to secure hemostasis. So, basically, stop the bleeding, the packing, the bandaging, you know, all those compression things that we do to stop it. And these are things that the ambulance service and their staff should be able to do at the very spot.

[00:08:01]Prof mentions that that didn't happen.

[00:08:03]It talks about the fact that proper documentation in the ambulance didn't happen.

[00:08:09]Proper protocols were not followed.

[00:08:13]Chain of command was missing.

[00:08:15]And fluids, which could be life-saving, which can actually be administered, was also not administered administered. So, you talk about all these things, and then in the conclusion, there's no mention of any recommendation regarding the staff who were on duty, who failed to do all these things.

[00:08:34]The service itself, that also provided cuffs and other things that did not even help them to do these things. So, within the 118 minutes, Get off OF MY PHONE.

[00:08:44]NO MORE PHONE CALLS FOR YOU.

[00:08:46]YEP, THAT'S ME. YOU'RE probably wondering how I ended up in this The GMA and the Registered Nurses Association are not excited about the naming.

[00:08:58]But you say there's something good about the report. Yes. Tell us about that one.

[00:09:03]No, the recommendations Okay, so let me start this way.

[00:09:09]If you read the report carefully, it tells you about the systemic failures that exist in the service.

[00:09:17]It tells you about the various stages within the chain and how poor us or how bad they may look or they look. So, the ambulance service we just talked about all the shortfalls.

[00:09:28]This is very clear.

[00:09:30]Within the chain, all the failures that happened, they've all been mentioned. So, as the states, as of this point, the committee appointed by the minister himself a document that has now been accepted by the minister and since have been worked on clearly tells all of us that the state has failed us.

[00:09:50]And we need to go into a very quick reform agenda that will put all of us on track. I return to