Korle-Bu: New Emergency Facility To Be Opened On Friday

A new facility at the Accident and Emergency centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is expected to be opened on Friday.

The newly-elected Board Chairman of Korle Bu, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye who made this revelation on Citi FM/CitiTV's News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue said the move forms part of measures to address capacity problems at the Emergency Centre at the hospital.

“With Korle Bu, the first step we have taken with the Board is to immediately open a new facility on Friday at the accident and emergency centre that has twice the capacity of the existing one. It is a facility that has not been used. It was structurally complete but in terms of the gadgets, it had a few structural defects so immediately we had some of these weaknesses coming up we sought emergency funding and now it has been put in place but we need to test run the place,” the Ledzokuku legislator said.

A patient at the Korle Bu hospital receives medical attention on the floor

On Tuesday, some patients who arrived at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in excruciating pain had to buy plastic chairs to enable doctors and nurses to attend to them.

The move followed the Ministry of Health's directive to hospitals not to turn away patients who arrive with emergency cases even if there are no beds to accommodate them.

Citi News' Nii Armah's visit to the Korle Bu Surgical Medical Unit revealed that other patients who could not afford plastic chairs were being attended to on the bare floor in a congested room.

'Korle Bu isn't an island'
Dr. Oko Boye said it will require a public-private partnership to address challenges bedeviling Korle Bu.

He pointed out that though the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospital Act 525 places some level of autonomy on Korle Bu, it can only succeed with “efficient participation from other facilities, both public and private within the metropolis.”

Dr. Oko Boye pointed out that given the crucial role public-private partnership plays, government is not “only looking within as to how to improve the efficiency but also outside Korle Bu.”

No bed syndrome
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 at Teshie, 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 kilometers in total, across the seven hospitals, till he eventually died at around 3:30 am.

The Ghana Health Service Director-General, Dr. Anthony Nsiah-Asare, said the Service was first going to set up an investigative Committee to probe the incident.

The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike Oquaye, has also charged the Health Committee as well as the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, to come up with laws and regulations in the medical field that will deal with the no-bed syndrome at some of the country's health facilities.