The former head of the Korle-Bu Cadiothoracic Centre, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has called for cool heads to prevail while the appointing authorities take decisions that will be in the supreme interest of the patients at the centre. “I think that those who orchestrated the events that led to the production of that letter should come together, rethink their position so that normal work can go on at the National Cardiothoracic Centre,” he told the Daily Graphic on Monday, and that, “It is necessary to allow people to work with the right frame of mind.” He said since he was not part of any discussion and negotiations and was as helpless as anybody else, he could neither influence the doctors who were on strike at the centre nor could he influence the decision of the President whom the doctors had petitioned. “I really don’t know; I wish I had a solution. For now I am at home with my wife,” he told the Daily Graphic. He said he had worked for 22 years with the nation’s interest at heart. I go to work at 6:00.a.m. every day until I was told to go home per a letter headlined ‘Re: Termination of Appointment as Honorary Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.’ According to the letter which he showed to the Daily Graphic, “In view of your transfer from the Ministry of Health to the University of Ghana Medical School, your appointment as honorary Director in charge of the Cardiothoracic Centre has been terminated with immediate effect.” The letter, which was signed by the Minister of Health, Mr Joseph Yieleh Chireh, further stated that “we take this opportunity to thank you for the services rendered to the Cardiothoracic Centre and also wish you well in your future endeavour”. As to whether he thought politics had influenced his termination, he said, “I do not think this is political. Ghana is too matured to get into such things, every-body knows me and they know that I do not mix my work with politics. Even though everybody knows that I am an NPP, they know that as far as my work is concerned, I am apolitical and I don’t mix my work with politics.” On the issue that he resigned his position in 2000, he explained that “all those arguing that way simply want to throw dust into the eyes of the public”. He asked, “Why did the letter refer to my appointment as Honorary Director in charge of the National Cardiothoracic Centre?” He explained that the transfers from the Ghana Medical School, Ministry of Health and then to the Ghana Medical School were just routine and administrative. He said in all of the transfers, the nature of his work did not change at all and he continued to work at the National Cardiothoracic Centre and taught students at the medical school. What changed was whether he was paid by the Ministry of Education or the Ministry of Health because as head of the Cardio Centre he was under the Medical School which was under the Ministry of Education and as the Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital he was under the Ministry of Health and was paid by that ministry. “In all of these, my job at the Cardio Centre was intact and for mere effective administrative purposes and possibly to avoid double payment of salaries, I needed to resign from one ministry to another.”