Exploitation at Ankaful Hospital Pharmacy

Investigations by Joy News have uncovered systematic exploitation of patients at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital in the Central Region by some pharmacists and cashiers.
The investigations revealed that these personnel sell their own drugs to patients and issue forged receipts to them.
The situation obtains in the wake of a severe shortage of drugs at psychiatric hospitals in the country after fire razed the Central medical Stores early this year.
Joy News Kwetey Nartey who conducted the investigation, spoke to one of the victims who said his mum who suffers a mental illness is made to pay for her medication anytime she visited the hospital.
Clement Micah’s mother has been mentally ill for the past 18 years and receives medication for free.
But in recent months he noticed that any time his mother went to the hospital she was made to pay between 60 and 80 cedis.
He became suspicious and decided to accompany his mother to the hospital to find out why.
“When we got to the pharmacist he told us that there wasn’t medication but if we were prepared to pay then he was willing to get us some medication. So I paid and afterwards I demanded a receipt but I noticed that the receipt was not in the name of the hospital”, Mikah told Kwetey.
To verify these claims, Kwetey followed Micah’s mother to the hospital on one of her regular checkups.
At the pharmacy one of the attendants named only as Derrick, claimed there was a shortage of the Mentat tablets which had been prescribed but said he was prepared to sell an alternative he had stocked at the pharmacy.
The medication prescribed for Micah’s mum
“This is not prescribed by the hospital but it is a herbal preparation which is very good, you can buy it”, Derrick said.
After dispensing the drugs, Derrick issued private receipt bearing the inscription ‘5TH GENERATION PHARMACY’.
However, when Kwetey called the numbers provided on the receipt, he found out that the receipt had been forged.
Chief Director of Pharmaceutical Services at the Accra Psychiatry, Kokah Assam said the pharmacy had been closed down for about two years now.
“In fact I am the Superintendent pharmacist of the 5TH GENERATION PHARMACY which happens to be a pharmacy in Cape Coast.
“We got ejected from our premises so we closed down the pharmacy two years ago on December 31, 2013 and we are not aware of our receipt being used anywhere. We haven’t contracted anybody, it is illegal for a private pharmacists receipt to used in a public hospital”, he added.
Kwetey went back to confront Derrick at the Ankaful Pharmacy but he denied issuing private receipts, insisting that the receipts he issues bear the inscription of the Health Ministry.
But Derrick is not the only one issuing forged receipts at the hospital, some cashiers are also involved in the fraud.
They issue receipts with plain sheets of paper bearing the hospital’s stamps.
“When I got to the cashier, she just opened the drawer and brought out a medication and gave it to me. I insisted to have an invoice or receipt on the medication, then she just brought out A4 sheet paper scribbled the amount on it, picked Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital stamp and endorsed it”, Micah recounted his encounter.
In an interview with Kwetey about these developments, Medial Director at the Ankaful Hospital, Dr. Kwaw Armah Erloo admitted there was a challenge with drug shortages.
He said the activities of Derrick and the cashiers if verified are illegal.
“Some people always try to make gains from the system but I want to tell you that it is completely illegal. The hospital buys the drugs once in a while as service to the patients, they don’t have to come all the way from their places of residence and there are no drugs so we do but in that case it is official and we give official receipts”, he said.
Official receipt of the Ankaful Hospital
It appears the exploitation of the patients at the Ankaful Psychiatric Hospital is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hospital authorities are indebted to suppliers due to government’s failure to release funding to them for two years running.
The situation is taking a toll on operations at the hospital.
Dr Erloo said “monies from government have never been sufficient but it is getting a little worse. You can’t predict how much is coming and when it will, so our biggest problem is with finance.
“We also have challenges with medication. Until very recently we had problems with the supply of medication, they were not coming at all”, he added.
He indicated that most of their suppliers have on several occasions threatened to pursue legal action against them because they’ve supplied food stuff to the hospital and they have not paid for two years.
Source – Joy Fm