Doctor Banned For Wrong Diagnosis Website
The Ghana Medical and Dental Council has struck out the name of a medical practitioner from the country's medical register after it found him guilty of infamous conduct in a professional respect. The culprit, Dr S. A. Arthur, who runs a private medical centre at Nungua, near Accra, is said to have misdiagnosed a patient, Mr William Ademola Segun Johnson, a situation that contributed to his death. Dr Arthur, feeling aggrieved, has, however, filed a petition against the ruling at the Court of Appeal and the council has been served notice to that effect. No date has, however, been fixed for the hearing of the appeal. Mr Johnson, a Ghanaian of Nigerian parentage, reported to Dr Arthur's hospital on January 1, 2007 with severe pain in the leg, after he had been treated earlier for a chest infection and had taken rest in bed. Dr Arthur, who has practised for 34 years, was said to have diagnosed the patient as having torn a ligament and allegedly proceeded to give him some injections to reduce the pain. It turned out that the patient was suffering from a medical condition known as Deep Vein Thrombosis, which is caused by the clotting of blood in the veins. The Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council, Dr Eli Kwasi Atikpui, confirmed this to the Daily Graphic when contacted and said Dr Arthur petitioned the Court of Appeal because the council's disciplinary committee that conducted the hearing had the powers of a High Court. He said by law the council had the option of reprimanding him, suspending him or striking out his name from the medical register but the Council opted for the latter because of the gravity of the situation. He explained that Dr Arthur would have to re-apply for his licence after a year and the council would then consider his application but said there was no guarantee that he would automatically be given back the licence to practice once he reapplied. Dr Atikpui said when a complaint was made to the council, the Penal Cases Committee, which is the investigative arm of the Council, conducted the appropriate investigations and referred the case to the Disciplinary Committee for further investigations and appropriate action, as required by law. "At the Disciplinary Committee, charges are preferred against the practitioner and we go through a whole system of trial," he explained. He said the council had intensified its efforts to create awareness of its operations to ensure that it was made easily accessible to people who had complaints to make. Dr Atikpui said the council had developed a website, www.mdcghana.org, which highlighted its functions and operations. He said members of the public who made complaints against medical professionals did not have to pay anything, adding that "apart from their transportation to our offices for the hearings, we take care of everything, including providing them with lawyers. Dr Atikpui emphasised that the council had the mandate of guiding the profession and protecting the public and cautioned practitioners that it would not relent in applying the law when they were found culpable. When contacted by the Daily Graphic, Mr Johnson's fiancé, Ms Gillian Amarteifio, narrated the circumstances leading to his death. She said the doctor's diagnosis had been met with some protestations from her because she believed that it was unlikely for Johnson to have torn a ligament, since he had virtually been bedridden and had not been involved in any strenuous activity or exercise. She said Johnson collapsed after he had been given some injections by a nurse on Dr Arthur's instruction and even her attempts to find out what injections were being administered had been ignored by the nurse, who said she was acting on the doctor's instructions. According to Gillian, the next day Johnson had felt a little relieved. "I went to work and later called him around 8.30 a.m. He sounded breathless and I was worried, but he told me not to be disturbed because he was only taking some soup," she said. She said around 12 noon her houseboy and two friends of Johnson's had gone to her office to inform her that Johnson's condition had worsened and that he had been sent to Korle-Bu. She said it was when they got to the Korle-Bu Polyclinic that her houseboy told her that Johnson had died. He got hysterical and was very tearful," she said, as she wiped tears from her eyes. Gillian said she later went for Johnson's medical notes from the hospital at Nungua and sent them to Korle-Bu to have an autopsy conducted. She said the autopsy confirmed her suspicions about her fiancé’s medical condition. She said she later got in touch with the Medical and Dental Council and made a formal complaint, after which a committee was set up to look into the matter. Gillian expressed gratitude to the council for its high level of professionalism and said she was happy that at least there was a very competent and professional body to which Dr Arthur had to answer.
Source: MJFM
