Twenty-five journalists within Ashanti Region have received training on medical malpractice and patients’ safety for accurate and concise reports to enhance sustainable healthcare.
The workshop was spearheaded by local non-governmental organisation (NGO) Advocacy for Medical Malpractice Victims (AMMV).
The move is to ignite media practitioners’ interest in the area of medical negligence to bring to bear numerous issues some patients are faced with.
Though there are no available statistics on medical negligence in Ghana, globally, an estimated 225,000 people die each year from some form of medical malpractice, from incorrect dosages to surgical errors, to wrong diagnosis.
In the United States, medical errors is the third most common reason for death.
Only 2% of those who suffer from medical malpractice ever file claims for compensation.
But at the workshop held in Kumasi to orient media practitioners on the subject and the need for swift actions to set up several platforms for victims of medical malpractices to lodge complaints and subsequent investigations to land compensations for the vulnerable, the Chief Executive Secretary of Advocacy for Medical Malpractice Victims(AMMV), Kwame Brobbey Appiah, disclosed that “our focus is on negligence on the part of medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, biomedical scientists, radiologists and the others in the discharge of their duties, leading to injuries or death of patients who attend their facilities”.
He further added that “we undertake public education and sensitization on the need to report incidents of alleged medical malpractice through the media and AMMV’s various outlets”.
“We want to encourage victims to open up on their experiences as well as that of their relatives in accessing healthcare and the incident of suspected medical malpractice leading to injuries or deaths.”
By Nana Asenso Mensah|3news.com|Ghana
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