Effective June 1, 2026, the Ministry of Health will begin piloting a National Bed Command and Emergency Coordination Centre aimed at improving emergency response across health facilities in the country.
The system, which is expected to bring most teaching and regional hospitals onto a common platform to provide real-time data on bed availability, patient movement and emergency capacity, forms part of broader reforms designed to improve emergency care delivery in the country.
This was made known to journalists during a visit by the Minister of Health, Mr Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to the centre located within the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (GARH) yesterday, to assess progress of work and ensure its operationalisation within the scheduled timeline.
The visit followed the Minister’s receipt of the report of a seven-member committee that investigated the death of 29-year-old Charles Amissah on February 6 this year, after a hit-and-run accident near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Interchange in Accra.
According to the committee’s findings, chaired by Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, a renowned pathologist and former Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Amissah died from excessive blood loss (exsanguination) due to delayed and denied emergency care at three major health facilities in Accra — the Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
Briefing journalists on progress of work on the centre, the Facility Manager, Dr Justin Osei, said a total of 267 health facilities, with a combined bed capacity of 12,840, had so far been enrolled onto the platform.
He explained that under the pilot, all participating facilities would be linked to a centralised digital platform through “mini command centres” that would monitor bed occupancy and patient flow in real time.
Each facility, he said, would have ward-level monitoring teams responsible for updating bed status at regular intervals.
Dr Osei disclosed that a nationwide “bed tagging exercise” to verify and catalogue all hospital beds would begin next week.
“We are going to tag every single bed and have them verified so we can have a clear picture of the number of beds being used and those not being used across the system,” he stated.
A key feature of the system, he added, is the automated flagging of prolonged stays in emergency wards. Patients who remain in emergency units beyond a set period would automatically be flagged for review and action, to create space for new emergency cases.
Expressing satisfaction with preparatory work done so far ahead of the pilot phase, Mr Akandoh stressed the urgency of operationalising the command centre in line with recommendations contained in the committee’s report.
He assured that issues relating to synchronising the system and ensuring its sustainability would be presented to Cabinet for advice and approval where necessary.
Nonetheless, the Minister directed all health facilities across the country to ensure emergency patients are stabilised before being referred to another hospital, regardless of bed availability.
“What we are looking for is that the ambulance picks a patient and moves to the nearest health facility. Whether it is private or public, they must stabilise the patient before the patient can be moved anywhere — even if you have to stabilise the patient on the floor,” he stated.
Mr Akandoh also assured that the government would implement the recommendations of the committee to the letter to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.
Meanwhile, seven health professionals from the Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital named in the report are expected to face disciplinary action for alleged negligence leading to the death of Amissah.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
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