Professor Titus Beyuo, Board Chairman of Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, has expressed concern that Ghana’s One Constituency, One Ambulance initiative is effectively “driving blind” due to a shortage of hospital beds across the country.
Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Tuesday, Professor Beyuo explained that the scheme could achieve its objectives only if health facilities had sufficient beds to admit patients immediately.
However, he noted that widespread lack of beds in major hospitals forces ambulances to search for available beds, delaying critical care.
“I remember very well at the time the previous government bought these ambulances for the constituencies, I made a comment that the ambulances are going to be driving blind, and people are asking me why. It is true, as of today, they drive blind because an ambulance will pick up a patient and does not have a direct location to which they are sending the patient to,”
“They come to a smaller hospital, you ask them to send the patient to another hospital, and they are asking you, (the doctor at the hospital), to tell them where they can send the patient to or give them assurance that Korle-Bu, 37 Hospital, is willing to receive the patient before they will move,” he explained.
Linking the situation to the recent incident at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, where the unavailability of a hospital bed is said to have contributed to the death of an accident victim, he said, “When they picked up the patient from the accident scene, they were roaming from hospital to hospital, which means they are moving blind. They are unable to tell ahead of time where that patient can be received.”
The Lambussie MP emphasised the urgent need to expand hospital capacity to ensure that ambulances can deliver patients promptly and effectively, warning that the current situation undermines the potential impact of the initiative.
ALSO READ:
