Security consultant Richard Kumadoe has criticised hospital managers and administrators over what he describes as weak security systems in health facilities, following the recent baby theft at Mamprobi Polyclinic.
According to him, many hospitals across Ghana fail to enforce basic safety protocols, which creates room for criminal activity.
Speaking on TV3 on February 19, as monitored by NewsDesksGH, Richard Kumadoe said hospital management must take security more seriously beyond routine administrative duties.
“I think the hospital managers and the hospital administrators will need to do more.”
He stressed that poor enforcement of safety measures has contributed to rising professional negligence in some facilities.
“If you look at it, some of the safety guidelines are not enforced, the protocols within the hospitals are not visible and that is why professional negligence is so high and anybody at all can walk in and pick anybody’s child or commit a crime.”
The security consultant revealed that a previous nationwide assessment exposed similar gaps.
“Last year March and May, when we did this security risk assessment that we took about 200 hospitals, many of the things we saw were some of them that have come up today. I think a little bit of innovating and creativity from the hospital managers and administrators will go a long way to ensure that our mothers and sisters who go to the hospitals are safe.”
He further called for the introduction and strict enforcement of access control systems and proper admission and discharge protocols.
“They need basic access control and basic admission of patients and discharging protocols. This one wouldn’t cost them so much money. They just have to do it. Hospital management is a serious business, it goes way beyond duty roster and prescription of drugs.”
Richard Kumadoe cautioned that hospital authorities could be held accountable in situations where security lapses create public suspicion and tension, referencing the unrest that happened during the Mamprobi incident.
“If you don’t do it, you’re going to have trouble.”
He also questioned existing private security arrangements at some hospitals.
“Individuals who manage our hospitals, they’re not doing well at all. If you look at some of the contracts they sign with some people who say they’re providing security for some of these hospitals, the arrangement will need to be looked at again, awareness and basic safety protocols and security measures.”
The comments come after a four-day-old baby boy was stolen from the postnatal ward of the Mamprobi Polyclinic on February 17, 2026.
Police identified the suspect as 33-year-old Latifa Salifu, who allegedly disguised herself in a nurse’s uniform and took the infant under the pretext of administering medication.
The baby’s mother, Precious Ankomah, who delivered on February 14, told police that a woman dressed in a nurse’s peach-colored uniform took the baby under the pretext of administering medication and disappeared.
Following a tip-off and review of CCTV footage, the Ghana Police Service arrested the suspect at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on February 18. She was found with a baby suspected to be the missing child.
Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Agnes Naa Momo Lartey, stated that the suspect was “desperate for a child” and used the theft to deceive her UK-based husband into believing she had given birth.
