Patients in Ghana’s premier hospital are being accommodated on plastic chairs

desmond frimpong

July 11, 2018 1:31 PM

Photos circulating on social media on showed among other things, electrocardiography being carried out on a patient in a plastic chair rather than on a bed, which is the ideal situation.

The lack of beds in Ghana’s premier health facility Korle Bu has forced patients turning up for treatment at facility to buy plastic chairs to enable doctors and nurses attend to them.

This comes after the Ministry of Health directed hospitals not to turn away patients who arrive with emergency cases even if beds are unavailable to accommodate them.

Local news agency Citi News reports that the Korle Bu Surgical Medical Emergency Unit patients who could not afford plastic chairs were being attended to on the bare floor in a congested room.

Patients are receiving medical treatment despite the situation.

The Public Relations Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Mustapha Salifu, said the hospital is not enthused about the situation and is working to decongest the ward.

He said the hospital as part efforts to decongest the ward is sending information to other hospitals not to refer emergency cases there.

Background

The no-bed syndrome has been in the spotlight after a 70-year-old man, Prince Anthony Opoku-Acheampong, reportedly died in his car at the LEKMA Hospital in Accra, after seven hospitals turned him away over claims that there were no beds.

The deceased’s family started searching for a hospital for him at 11:00 pm on June 2, traveling for about 46 kilometres in total, across the seven hospitals, till he eventually died at around 3:30 am.

desmond frimpong