The Emergency Medicine Residents of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) have emphasized that the recent accidents and emergency ordeal is a national crisis, not the hospital’s problem.
In a statement released on Monday, March 24, 2026, they explained that the crisis is a symptom of a fractured national emergency response system, characterized by:
1. Dysfunctional referral pathways: Patients are dumped at tertiary centers because primary and secondary facilities cannot hold them.
2. Absent pre-hospital coordination: Patients arrive critically ill with no advance notice and no basic interventions initiated.
3. No national bed-tracking system, making real-time patient redistribution impossible.
The statement noted that the public record accurately shows the conditions under which care is being provided, emphasizing that characterizing this documentation as ‘AI-generated’ or ‘media slander’ is factually inaccurate and an affront to both patients and staff.
“We write to ensure the public record accurately reflects the conditions under which care is being delivered and the systemic failures that made them inevitable,” the residents affirmed.
The emergency unit asserted that the viral footage is authentic, explaining that the surge in patients exhausted all available chairs, and when those chairs were also exhausted, patients had no option but to receive care on the floor.
“They highlighted that the procurement of 200 beds does not address the crisis; they congest an already overwhelmed space, adding that a comprehensive, resourced solution is required, not headline figures.
“Beds without functional oxygen points, airway equipment, monitoring tools, adequate floor space, and sufficient nursing and physician staffing ratios do not improve care,” the residents revealed.
The Emergency Medicine Residents disclosed that they do not need more beds in hallways but a strengthened national healthcare grid.
“We do not call for more beds in hallways. We call for a strengthened national healthcare grid,” they said.
The residents urged management and the Ministry of Health to move past PR-focused responses and commit to transparent and systemic reform.
“The evidence is real, the crisis is real, and the response must be equally real,” the statement admonished.
Source:Christabel Opare
