Former General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Justice Yankson, has taken issue with aspects of Prof. Agyemang Badu Akosa’s Committee findings on the death of Charles Amissah, insisting the body went beyond its mandate in concluding medical negligence.
The committee had attributed Amissah’s death to medical negligence after he was reportedly denied admission at several health facilities, including the Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, on grounds of unavailable beds.
The Committee subsequently named seven professionals who have now been referred to their regulators for necessary action.
However, speaking on Channel One TV’s The Big Issue, Dr. Yankson argued that the committee, as a fact-finding body, was not legally empowered to make such a determination.
He stressed that at this stage of the process, none of the health professionals involved could be deemed culpable, citing the constitutional presumption of innocence.
“We need to distinguish where we are now from potentially what is to come. At this point, none of these seven professionals is guilty. Our constitution says you are presumed innocent until you are proven guilty,” he said.
Dr. Yankson further maintained that findings of medical negligence fall strictly within the remit of legal and quasi-judicial processes, not investigative committees.
“If you look at the concept of medical negligence, it falls under the law of tort. The committee had no moral as well as legal status to talk about medical negligence,” he stated.
He explained that while the committee’s work could inform further processes, its conclusion risked blurring the line between fact-finding and adjudication.
“The judicial exercise proper is now going to start from the quasi-judicial processes at the Medical and Dental Council,” he added, describing the conclusion on negligence as “problematic.”
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