A leading member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, Kwadwo Poku, has blamed what he calls poor attitudes among some health workers for Ghana’s recurring “no bed syndrome” in public hospitals.
Speaking on the AM Show on Joy News, Mr Poku shared a personal experience to highlight what he described as weak emergency response and poor triage in some health facilities.
“I’ve had a similar experience in Kumasi, where I had a cut in my hand. This happened around 2:00 a.m. When I went to Komfo Anokye, nobody took me in. The nurses just basically sat me there,” he said.
According to him, he waited for about two hours at the emergency unit of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital without receiving treatment, despite bleeding from his injury.
“They said, ‘Oh, they are coming.’ I sat there for two hours and left. I later went to a private hospital around Santasi where I got stitched,” he recounted.
Mr Poku argued that his experience shows the problem goes beyond limited hospital beds and infrastructure. In his view, the attitude and professionalism of health workers play a major role in how patients are treated during emergencies.
“This is a twofold conversation. The first is about the quality of care and the Ghanaian in healthcare. What made this situation happen was not the system at that point, but the quality of care,” he said.
He stressed that under Ghana’s health regulations, emergency patients should not be turned away because of a lack of space.
“For you to say you are refusing someone because of no bed, you are not allowed to refuse an emergency. You have to give the person basic treatment first,” Mr Poku insisted.
His comments come amid renewed public debate over the “no bed syndrome,” following recent reports of patients being denied admission or left unattended in emergency wards due to congestion.
In recent weeks, some major facilities, including the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge Hospital), have been cited in media reports over how emergency cases are handled.
Mr Poku questioned why attention often focuses on hospitals that eventually admit patients, while little is said about facilities that turn them away.
“If you’ve gone and indicted Korle Bu and Ridge because they accepted patients, what about those who rejected them? That is also important,” he noted.
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