By Jibril Abdul Mumuni
Accra, March 27, GNA – Ghana’s emergency care system is under severe strain, with the country operating at 0.7 hospital beds per 1,000 population, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has revealed.
It said this is far below the World Health Organization’s recommended 5 Beds.
The Association said the widening bed deficit, coupled with major hospitals recording 120–150 percent occupancy, has intensified the nationwide “No‑bed Syndrome.”
In a statement issued in Accra and signed by Mrs. Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo, the President for the Association, the GRNMA said available data show the crisis was systemic and long‑standing.
The Association said the situation highlighted a continuing mismatch between the country’s bed capacity and its growing healthcare needs.
It noted that Ghana’s national bed count estimated at about 19,907 as far back as 2015 has not kept pace with population growth, resulting in near‑constant congestion across major referral centres.
The situation is said to be most severe in Accra and Kumasi, where tertiary hospitals such as the Korle‑Bu Teaching Hospital, which handles over 250 admissions and 1,500 outpatient visits daily, are struggling to cope.
According to the Association, emergency units frequently operate beyond safe capacity, forcing critically ill patients to wait for hours or be transferred repeatedly between facilities in search of available space.
Some of these delays, it stressed, have resulted in preventable deaths.
The GRNMA also linked the persistent crisis to limited investment in health infrastructure, citing data from 2021, showing Ghana allocated 11 per cent of the national budget to health, falling short of the 15 per cent Abuja Declaration target committed to by African states.
It said the current situation undermined the country’s commitment to Universal Health Coverage and placed enormous pressure on nurses and midwives who continued to work under unsafe, overcrowded conditions, often with limited resources.
The Association emphasised that no patient presenting with an emergency should be denied care and described the ongoing no‑bed incidents as ethically unacceptable and damaging to patient dignity.
The GRNMA maintained that the crisis reflected a broader systemic failure requiring urgent, structural reforms.
GNA
27 March 2026
Edited by Samuel Osei-Frempong