Private legal practitioner and spokesperson for the Movement for Change, Andrew Appiah-Danquah, has criticised Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh’s conduct following the assault on nurses at Ridge Hospital, arguing that his actions sent the wrong message to the victims and exposed deeper systemic failures in governance and law enforcement.
According to the Ministry’s Head of Communication, Tony Goodman the Minister visited the facility because staff morale was low. But Appiah-Danquah contends that the Minister’s conduct — especially as captured in viral footage showing him hugging and patting the back of the alleged perpetrator — undermined the very purpose of the visit.
“The Minister of Health — you want to tell me that you did not have any briefing on who caused it? Then your actions, beyond the hugging seen on the video, patting the back of the gentleman… If his purpose was to go and raise the morale of the people, then the action he took was not right,” he said on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue on Saturday, August 23.
He stressed that at a time when healthcare workers needed solidarity and assurance, the Minister’s public friendliness toward the alleged attacker sent a damaging signal.
“The job of the politician is not just to shake hands. Even after you were told that this is the perpetrator, to shake him was to signal to the nurses that, ‘I side with your aggressor as against you.’”
Appiah-Danquah further pointed to wider institutional lapses, particularly the police’s failure to act promptly in what he described as a clear criminal situation.
“I think the systemic failure is not just with regards to the hospital itself but with the entire system,” he said, adding “Because the question is: must the Minister call the police before they effect an arrest?”
He insisted that the nature of the incident — an alleged assault and public disturbance — was criminal and should have triggered immediate law enforcement action without political intervention.
“Even without going into the nitty-gritties of the case, there is an alleged assault, which is a crime. There is an alleged disturbance of the peace and public, which is an offence,” he added.
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