Frimpong-Boateng quits Cardio Centre

Page 3: Daily Graphic, August 4, 2009.
Story: Albert K. Salia
THE Director of the National Cardiothoracic Centre, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has quit the administration of the centre.
This is to enable those he terms “the new generation” to continue with the running of the centre and shape it for the future.
Since the centre was established in 1989, six Ghanaians and 25 others from Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia have been trained as qualified heart surgeons.
Announcing this at a press conference to launch the 20th anniversary of the centre in Accra yesterday, Prof Frimpong-Boateng said his decision to quit was to give room to the younger generation of surgeons to take the centre to a new level.
He said he wanted to quit 10 years ago but was held back to ensure that the right systems were in place for any person to run the place.
“I wish to announce that after 20 years, the time has come for me to say good bye to front-line service at the cardiothoracic centre and hand over the day-to-day administration and responsibilities to the next generation,” he said.
He said he wanted to make a point that no one was indispensable at the centre.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng said every person at the centre had some responsibilities to fulfil, explaining that each intensive care unit (ICU) nurse had one or more areas to organise while one surgeon was responsible for maintaining good stocks of all items needed for open heart surgery.
“With such a system in place, all areas of the centre are covered by responsible individuals who, in the end, make sure that the entire centre works like a clockwork,” he said.
He was particularly happy that the attitude of staff towards seeing the centre as their own and taking care of everything there, as well as patients, had kept the centre running without an industrial action since its establishment.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng said if all Ghanaian adopted such attitude, Ghana would be lifted from its present state to a wealth-creation country.
He said the most important achievement at the centre was duplicating his skills by training other qualified health professionals, including heart surgeons, nurses and anaethestists.
He said Ghana had so much potential and that if it was able to get just 200 Ghanaians in each sector of the country to have the right attitude, “Ghana will never be the same”.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng urged Ghanaians to motivate themselves to create wealth instead of looking up to the government and politicians to create wealth for them, adding that “no one can provide you with all that you need”.
He urged public servants in particular to adopt a positive attitude to work and let the interest of Ghana reign supreme in the discharge of their duties.
He said sabotaging the government of the day because one did not support it was not in the interest of Ghana.
Prof Frimpong-Boateng expressed his appreciation to all Ghanaians for supporting the establishment of the centre and urged them to be proud of it as the centre was the only functional cardiovascular surgery centre in the sub-region.