Story: News Desk

Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has appealed for more doctors and nurses to strengthen healthcare delivery, citing staff shortages and mounting pressure on its Accident and Emergency Centre. 

The hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Yakubu Seidu Adam, said the facility needed additional medical personnel to complement the doctors and nurses undergoing training at the country’s premier referral hospital. 

Briefing members of Parliament’s Health Committee, Dr. Adam disclosed that the hospital’s 64-bed Accident and Emergency Centre was overstretched by the high number of accident victims and other emergency cases referred from across the country daily. 

He said the shortage of permanent medical staff was affecting the hospital’s ability to adequately support critical units, including the Accident and Emergency Centre and the Intensive Care Unit. 

Dr. Adam explained that although Korle Bu had a considerable number of doctors, many were trainees who eventually left after completing their programmes, making it necessary for the hospital to recruit more permanent staff. 

“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. 

He stressed that the hospital needed its own medical officers to strengthen the delivery of emergency and intensive care services. 

Dr. Adam said management had already communicated the staffing challenges to the hospital’s Director of Human Resources and the Minister of Health, but used the parliamentary engagement to renew the appeal for additional personnel. 

He also called for more nurses to support doctors in providing timely and effective care to patients. 

The hospital’s concerns come amid calls for improved emergency care infrastructure, with management also advocating the construction of a new facility to help address the pressure on the existing Accident and Emergency Centre.