Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has appealed to the government for additional doctors and nurses to address persistent staffing shortages and ease pressure on its Accident and Emergency (A&E) Centre.
The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Yakubu Seidu Adam, said the recruitment of more permanent medical personnel was critical to improving emergency care and strengthening services at the country’s leading referral facility.
Speaking during an engagement with Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr Adam disclosed that the hospital’s 64-bed Accident and Emergency Centre was struggling to cope with the growing number of accident victims and other emergency cases referred from different parts of the country.
He noted that the limited number of permanent medical staff was placing additional pressure on critical departments, particularly the A&E Centre and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
According to him, although the hospital has a significant number of doctors, a large proportion are medical trainees who leave after completing their training, creating challenges for the facility’s long-term staffing needs.
“This is a training institution. We have a number of doctors, but when we look at our numbers, most of them are not our staff. It’s a training institution; they come, we train them, and they go,” he said.
Dr Adam stressed that the hospital needed to recruit more medical officers who could provide sustained support for emergency and intensive care services, rather than relying heavily on doctors undergoing training.
He said management had already brought the staffing concerns to the attention of the hospital’s Director of Human Resources and the Minister of Health, but the meeting with Parliament’s Health Committee provided another opportunity to highlight the urgent need for additional personnel.
The Chief Executive Officer also called for more nurses to complement the efforts of existing medical staff and ensure patients receive timely and effective treatment.
The appeal comes as the hospital continues to face pressure on its emergency care services due to the volume of cases it handles from across the country.
Beyond addressing the shortage of personnel, management has also advocated the construction of a new facility to ease congestion and improve the hospital’s capacity to manage emergency cases.
The proposed intervention, alongside the recruitment of additional doctors and nurses, is expected to help strengthen emergency care delivery at the country’s premier referral hospital.