For over a century, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has been the heartbeat of Ghanaian health care.
Since its doors opened in 1923, this iconic institution has stood as our ultimate safety net.
It is the place where our mothers give birth against all odds, where our children receive life-saving surgeries, and where the most complex medical crises find answers.
Korle Bu is not just a collection of concrete blocks and wards; it is a monument to Ghanaian resilience and a sanctuary for our families.
Yet, any citizen who walks through its gates today knows that our premier hospital is fighting its own battle for survival.
We are not writing this article as medical experts but as Ghanaians who have seen the better side of Korle Bu.
The miraclesinside the storm
We must begin by honouring the incredible triumphs happening inside Korle Bu every single day. Against staggering odds, our doctors, nurses, and laboratory scientists are performing medical miracles.
Korle Bu remains a beacon of specialised care across West Africa.
It houses the National Cardiothoracic Centre and the Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre—facilities that save lives that would otherwise be lost.
Just recently, the hospital has pushed the boundaries of medical science right here on our soil, successfully executing complex kidney transplants and advanced paediatric surgeries.
Our healthcare workers are heroes.
They possess world-class minds and fiercely compassionate hearts, working round the clock to train the next generation of Ghanaian medical pioneers.
When the system works, Korle Bu provides a level of service that makes every Ghanaian proud.
The Pain We Cannot Ignore
But a community-driven look at Korle Bu demands total honesty about the cracks in the foundation.
We cannot hide from the heartbreaking realities that plague our people.
We have all heard the terrifying phrase "no-bed syndrome."
We have seen patients—our uncles, our sisters, our neighbours—waiting anxiously in corridors or receiving treatment in plastic chairs because the wards are bursting at the seams.
This overcrowding happens because our national referral system is broken, forcing Korle Bu to handle routine cases that local clinics should manage.
Compounding this is a silent emergency: the devastating brain drain of our finest intensive care nurses and specialised staff leaving for shores abroad.
Those who stay behind are left overstretched, exhausted, and fighting burnout, while working with ageing infrastructure that desperately needs modern updates.
A call for radical resources and better management
If we love Korle Bu, we must demand better for it. The hospital does not need pity; it needs aggressive resource mobilisation and airtight management.
To the management and the board: the community is watching, and we need transparent, innovative governance.
We must completely digitise bed tracking so that no critical patient is ever turned away based on guesswork.
We must see an end to internal administrative frictions between professional bodies; our lives depend on our medical teams working in absolute harmony.
To the government and corporate Ghana: it is time to treat Korle Bu as a matter of national security.
We must expand public-private partnerships to upgrade our wards, secure stable medical supplies, and build modern facilities such as the new endoscopy and IVF clinics.
More than that, we must incentivise our health workers so they choose to stay and serve the communities that raised them.
Korle Bu has its fair share of frustrations, such as:
• Severe Overcrowding & Bed Shortages: Due to a weak national referral system, thousands of patients bypass regional clinics and flood Korle Bu.
This has historically led to the dreaded "no-bed syndrome," where critical patients are sometimes treated in chairs or on floors.
• The Brain Drain Crisis: The hospital faces a severe human resource shortage.
High numbers of specialised health workers—particularly intensive care unit (ICU) nurses—regularly leave the country for better opportunities abroad, overstretching the remaining staff.
• Ageing Infrastructure: Though newer blocks exist, several of the primary medical and surgical blocks have structural issues and require constant, heavy capital investment to remain functional.
• Better Management Systems: The lack of a modern, automated management platform severely delays patient care, hinders resource allocation, and compromises the hospital's overall service delivery.
Our Hospital, Our Responsibility
Korle Bu belongs to us. It belongs to the street hawker, the corporate executive, the farmer, and the statesman alike.
When it thrives, Ghana thrives. When it suffers, our families pay the ultimate price.
We must stop viewing Korle Bu’s problems as distant administrative failures and start viewing them as a collective community crisis.
Let us applaud the brilliant minds keeping its doors open, but let us never stop raising our voices until Korle Bu gets the funding, the equipment, and the world-class management it rightfully deserves.
In this regard, we applaud the work being done by Dr Ocloo and his team and nurses at the Accident and Orthopaedic Centre with their physiotherapists led by Dr Alberta Nyarko and Mr Felix Asumaning, Dr Kow Entsua-Mensah and his team at the Cardiothoracic Centre, Prof. Ebenezer Badoe and his team at the Paediatric Department, Prof. Antwi-Oppong at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department, Prof. Joe Nat Clegg Lamptey and his team promoting Breast Awareness and Prof. Nkyekyer and this 2006 team on the 6th floor of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Ward.
They are passionate about what they do.
We also appreciate Prof. Frempong Boateng for giving us the Cardiothoracic Centre and walling Korle Bu, thus securing its land.
A write-up on Korle Bu cannot be complete without paying tribute to the vision of Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and the pioneering fathers of its Medical School, Professors Charles Easmon. E. A. Badoe, F.N.L. Engmann, J.K. M Quartey, H.H. Philips, E.Y.A Andoh, S.R. A. Dodu, F. T. Sai and others.
The Path Forward: A mandate for government action
If we love Korle Bu, we must stop asking it to perform miracles on a shoestring budget.
The hospital does not need temporary fixes; it requires aggressive, unyielding state intervention.
Our leaders must treat the survival of our premier referral facility as a matter of urgent national security.
The community demands immediate government action in three critical areas:
• Pass the Tissue Donation Law Now: While the hospital's management has proven its brilliance by executing groundbreaking medical procedures, they are legally bottlenecked. The government must urgently fast-track the long-delayed legislation for tissue and organ donation. Without this legal framework, pioneering milestones like routine monthly kidney transplants cannot become accessible to the ordinary Ghanaian who is currently bankrupting themselves on dialysis.
• Fix the Broken Conditions of Service to Halt Brain Drain: We cannot blame our nurses and doctors for leaving when the state delays the implementation of their hard-earned collective agreements. The Ministry of Health must stop citing budgetary constraints as an excuse to defer health workers' improved conditions of service. If the government can fund sweeping healthcare infrastructure nationwide, it must prioritise paying competitive salaries and hazard allowances to the frontline workers keeping Korle Bu alive.
• Enforce the Referral System and Modernise NHIS: Korle Bu is drowning because local polyclinics and regional hospitals bypass proper protocols, dumping routine cases into its overstretched wards. The Ministry of Health must structurally enforce the national referral policy to protect Korle Bu's capacity. Furthermore, the government must expand National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) coverage to absorb the high costs of intensive care services and advanced cancer treatments, ensuring that poverty is not a death sentence at our national gate.
• Encourage industry, mining companies and banks to adopt a ward in Korle Bu and refurbish it as part of their corporate social responsibility. This is being done, but more needs to be done.
• Encourage Medical Tourism: Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) must bridge the gap between its world-class clinical expertise and its logistical infrastructure to attract patients across the ECOWAS sub-region and the global diaspora
