The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has purchased 200 beds to help eliminate the “no bed syndrome” facing the facility.
According to the board chairman of the facility, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye, the beds were acquired for the emergency ward.
“We bought about 200 beds and also put in place a proper efficient bed management system at the emergency unit.”
He lamented that cases of patients who do not get beds at the emergency unit cause difficulty in supervision.
“We also realized that cases were dragging at the emergency unit. The labs had to literally move from unit to unit before coming back to the emergency unit, so quickly we put in place a system to make sure supervision was strict,” he stated.
Ghana’s premier health facility had been rejecting emergency cases because of the shortage of beds.
The situation also forced doctors to treat some patients on benches and on the floor while others were made to wait on plastic chairs, as a result of congestion at the emergency unit of the Hospital.
Mr. Boye added that the acquired beds are still not enough to accommodate the number of patients who visit the facility on a daily basis.
“The situation is better and the numbers we are seeing have reduced drastically but we are not out of the woods yet,” he said.
He was grateful to the president and the chief of staff for their support.