Social media photographs showing a patient being cared for on the floor
The management of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has directed hospitals and clinics not to refer emergency and surgical cases to the facility since it does not have rooms to accommodate the increasing number of patients.
The decision by the hospital management is to avoid the situation where a patient would be turned away due to unavailability of beds at the two units.
This follows a directive from the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to health facility managers across the country to, under no circumstance, refuse to admit a patient because there is no available bed, as part of measures to end the phenomenon of the ‘no bed’ syndrome.
Recently, images of people being treated on plastic chairs went viral on social media, exposing the dire situation under which patients are treated.
This is, therefore, raising questions about government’s measures to end the ‘no bed’ syndrome.
The images showed other patients who could not afford plastic chairs being attended to on the bare floor in a congested room.
Speaking with a local radio station, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of KBTH, Mustapha Salifu, indicated that the situation will soon improve with the opening of the hospital’s new emergency response centre.
He said the contractors are currently painting the walls, setting up equipment and training staff, adding that while the new centre won’t erase all their problems, he is sure it would bring some relief to patients.
By Abigail Owiredu Boateng