The Chief Executive Officer for the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Dr Oheneba Owusu-Danso has appealed to the media to carefully weigh their stories about the facility before publishing them.
This, he noted would help them to avoid giving the hospital a bad name and in effect turn away people from seeking care for ailments they might be suffering from.
Addressing a cross-section of media practitioners recently, Dr Owusu-Danso pleaded with the media to cross-check information they get about the facility from the right quarters.
According to him, the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital has a strong Public Relations outfit where responsible personalities are ready to attend to those who may be seeking for information or reporting complaints.
‘’We at KATH see the media as our primary partners and we are open to attend to you anytime you call for information or to cross check on any issue you may have discovered about our operations’’, the calm CEO noted.
SCARE:
The CEO expressed worry about some bad reportage some media houses had been churning out recently about KATH.
Some of these reports including the one that alleged KATH was selling HIV-infected blood, he noted were completely false and had only gone to put fear in the public for nothing.
Dr Owusu-Danso said KATH serves as a referral center and have people coming from almost six regions of the country to access care at the facility.
These false stories, he noted can scare people from accessing care at the facility and thereby fuelling the chances of people dying prematurely.
‘’My brothers no one can gag the media but when it comes to KATH we plead that before you publish anything you give us the courtesy of responding to any information you may have gotten from your sources or informants’’, the CEO appealed.
RESPONSES:
Speaking to some of the media practitioners, they agreed that care should be taken when writing on issues they have no idea of.
Some believe the first to break syndrome is a cause of these recent false reportage in the country since each media house want exclusivity for telling it first.
Joe Awuah Jnr, Senior reporter for the Daily Guide newspaper stressed the importance of cross-checking whatever information one has with the right quarters or authorities before running with same.
Oheneba Asiedu, Morning show host at FOX 97.9 said media practitioners must distinguish themselves by cross-checking for facts before publishing their stories.
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