‘The system has failed us again’ – Father of 12-year-old who died due to unavailability of ambulance service

The father of the 12-year-old boy who died over the weekend due to lack of bed and unavailability of ambulance service has expressed disappointment in the country’s healthcare system.

Michael Nartey simply described the death of Harry Nartey due to unavailability of basic facilities as a failure.

His son passed on Friday at the Battor Catholic Clinic in the Volta Region after a failed transfer to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

“I felt sad and I mentioned around the hospital that the system has failed us again,” he told JoyNews.

Stressing on his displeasure on the AM Show Monday, Michael Nartey referred to a similar incident that occurred recently where a mother lost his son, although the “doctors were doing everything possible, the system didn’t work to see how best we can bring life to the gentleman, and so it’s just unfortunate.”

Mr Nartey who is incensed over the situation said he can’t understand why one has to go through several processes to access a vital service as that of an ambulance.

“I kept asking myself the emergency service has been localized so when there is an emergence you know who to call, and if they need reinforcement, they do those calls so why must a critical service like an ambulance be centralized somewhere for a call to be placed to region, region to constituency before an ambulance can move, why,” he quizzed.

He said they had to wait for close to five hours only for the boy to die, largely due to a situation that could be have been prevented.

“I just couldn’t help, and my words were that the system has failed me because no matter how bad the situation is, if we have had the best out of the system, we could know that yes we had the best, but we just couldn’t save it,” he stressed.

Michael Nartey, therefore, wants government to fix the challenges in the health sector to help save lives.

“If it will be possible, decentralised the deployment of the ambulance, I think it will be better than going through those number of processes to have an ambulance deployed,” he suggested.

He, however, commended the medical officers at the Battor Catholic Clinic for the numerous efforts to save Master Harry, as he witnessed the frustrations the doctors sometimes go through in their line of duty.

“In fact, during the course, they were just placing calls left, right and centre to make sure that at least together we can just save the boy’s life,” he noted.

“They did their best but then, speaking to them, the frustration they go through each day is just beyond imagination.

“One officer said, look, this is what they go through every day if we have to give a referral to a bigger hospital, these are the frustrations they go through every day,” he said.