The timing of this article couldn’t have been better, given the embarrassing decision by Ghana’s President, Prof. Evans Atta Mills, to sideline the world-renowned Ghanaian heart surgeon, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng.
The President’s decision will forcibly push a flag-ship medical centre of excellence, the National Cardiothoracic Centre (NCC), under the auspices of incompetent and corrupt administrators who are eager to have access to an imagined pot of gold. Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, who almost singlehandedly established the NCC two decades ago, against formidable odds, is perceived by government officials to be hindering their plan to dismantle the autonomy of the NCC and placing it under the poorly managed and money-losing Korle Bu Teaching Hospital administration.