Race for dead body--As hospital fakes patient's death, July 1, 2011, Front page

The decision of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital authorities to fake the death of one of its patients proved to be the bait that drew her family to the hospital, months after she had been abandoned there.

Soon after they were informed of the death of Augustina Mensah, 25, the family responded swiftly by dispatching family members armed with a coffin to convey the supposed corpse of their kinswoman home for a befitting funeral.

The family was said to have arrived at the DOVVSU head office in Accra to finish the paperwork authorising them to go for the supposed dead Augustina but it was not to be.

After hours of waiting and sensing that they could be in trouble with the law, some of the family members were said to have disappeared with the coffin while two others were led to the hospital.

Augustina was said to have been taken to the hospital by officials of the Department of Social Welfare (DSW) and the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) when she was knocked down by a vehicle.

The hospital authorities explained that since her mental state at the time was unstable, her family could not be contacted immediately.

However, after a brief stay at the hospital, she managed to give information about her family who were contacted on countless occasions, but for more than a month, they failed to respond.

But when the hospital and officials of the DSW dipped into their bank of wits and decided to inform the family that Augistina was dead, it instantly became a rewarding move, the family allegedly responded to take home her supposed dead body.

At the hospital, Augustina, with tears streaming down her face, said she was happy to get better but wanted to go home to her aunt who lived in Tema.

Occasionally laughing and crying, she said she missed her family. “I will be happy to go home to my family,” she stated.

Augustina said she was living at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle with her friends and worked at a spot in the area as a prostitute but stated that she would not go back to her old ways again.

Moments later, her aunt, Ms Comfort Amoh, walked into the female ward unable to hold back her tears and the two embraced each other.

A visibly shaken Ms Amoh said she felt elated that her niece was rather alive.

“I was not sure she was dead, so we came here to confirm it.”

She explained that the family did not deliberately abandon her at the hospital, saying the hospital authorities contacted Augustina’s mother who lived in Enchi in the Western Region.

However, because she was financially handicapped at the time, she could not respond to the call.

“Even transport from our hometown to Accra is no joke; her mother was still looking for money when news of her death reached her and she informed us.”

Commenting on the issue, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei, admitted that although the tactic used to get Augustina’s family to respond to the call was unethical, it proved to be effective.

“It is not exactly ethical but when hospital authorities are pushed to the wall, we only devise means that would serve the interest of patients,” he said.

He said for the fact that mental care was free, the family would have been billed to pay for Augustina’s stay at the hospital and added that she was okay to go home.

Augustina’s case is just a tip of the iceberg as there are many other patients who have been abandoned at the hospital, some for more than 20 years.

Meanwhile, 240 patients at the hospital have been discharged and sent home as part of an exercise to decongest the hospital which is dubbed “Operation 600 patients home”, reports Sebastian Syme.

Authorities at the hospital embarked on the initiative early this year in an effort to reduce the congestion rate to 300 in order to provide quality health care to the patients who are said to be more than 1000.

Dr Osei, who updated the Daily Graphic on the mass repatriation programme, said the hospital had targeted to discharge 600 of the patients by June, this year, but given the present situation that target was not likely to be achieved.

He, however, stressed that the exercise would be sustained until such a time that the hospital would reduce the congestion of patients whose high numbers were impeding the smooth administration of health delivery.

Concerning the mechanism for monitoring patients who had already been discharged, Dr Osei said there were community psychiatric nurses in the various communities to take charge of the patients’ welfare to facilitate their reintegration into the society.

He gave the assurance that more of such nurses were to be trained in every district to serve as front-line nurses in their respective jurisdictions to provide assistance to patients recovering from psychiatric diseases.

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