Tenure of C’ttee probing death of 2-year-old bitten by snake extended

The tenure of the committee set up to probe the case of Ibrahim Salid —the two-year-old boy who died of snakebite at the Upper West Regional Hospital —has been extended.

This was contained in a statement released by the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council on Tuesday after the five-member committee pleaded for extension of days to enable them to complete their work properly.

The work of the committee which ended on November 26, 2019, has been extended to December 10, 2019, to submit its report to the Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih.

The Regional Coordinating Council also assured the general public of “its support and commitment in ensuring quality healthcare delivery in the region”.

Background

The committee is probing into the circumstances that led to the death of a two-year-old boy who suffered a snake bite and could not access treatment at the old Upper West Regional Hospital.

The victim, Ibrahim Salid is reported to have been referred from Boli, a community in the Wa municipality to the regional facility.

Upon reaching the hospital, parents of the deceased were asked to go for a folder before treatment could start.

It, however, took more than four hours of waiting before they were allegedly told that those in charge of issuing folders did not report to work.

That seemed to have angered the frustrated parents who decided to resort to traditional treatment at the village.

The boy, however, died on their arrival to the community.

The incident angered a cross-section of members in the Wa municipality especially an uncle of the two-year-old boy, Salia Abudi, who is calling for heads to roll at the regional hospital.

Speaking at the meet the press series at Nandom two weeks ago, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih expressed his anger and revulsion about the incident, saying:

“Through the negligence of health officials at the old regional hospital, a two-year-old child lost his life. I am going to constitute a committee to investigate this matter”.

He said very serious punitive actions will be taken against anyone who is found culpable after the investigations.

“If it is indeed true that it was out of negligence that this boy lost his life, punitive actions will be taken.”

A journalist who was part of the committee recused himself and was immediately replaced.

Source: J. Ofori, Daily Mail GH