Ghana’s capital city has a shortage of hospital beds and this is already having deadly consequences

desmond frimpong

June 12, 2018 1:13 PM

Patients are at 'real threat' of contracting deadly infections because hospitals are too overcrowded, a think-tank has warned.

Hospitals in Ghana are struggling to cope as the number of inpatient beds continues to be slashed across the health service

Local media in the country report that the health service is facing increasing pressure as the urban population keeps increasing.

There are 3,400 hospital beds in Accra, serving health needs of the over 5 million population.

These beds are found in 7 major hospitals located in the capital.

Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital has 2,000 beds, Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge) has 420 beds, Trust Hospital has 86 beds.

These hospitals have the equipment and specialists for highly specialised medical care.

Questions about the number of beds in major hospitals in the country has come to the fore following that the ‘avoidable’ death of a 70-year-old man who spent almost 2 hours in a car driven by his family in an attempt to find a hospital to attend to his health emergency.

All the hospitals they visited refused to attend to him because no beds were available.

He died in the car at LEKMA Hospital after they visited other major hospitals including the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital and Police Hospital.

The infographic beneath captures the bed capacity of the major hospitals in Accra.

desmond frimpong