The Ministry of Health (MoH) has dismissed claims of a nationwide shortage of hospital beds, insisting that current data shows bed occupancy levels at various hospitals remain well below full capacity.
Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, revealed hospital bed occupancy currently stands at about 60 percent, meaning a significant number of beds remain available across the country’s health facilities.
Appearing before Parliament’s Economy and Development Committee, she argued that the real problem is not a shortage of beds but the absence of an efficient bed management system capable of coordinating available capacity across facilities.
According to Dr Ayensu-Danquah, having real-time information on bed availability across hospitals would allow emergency teams to direct patients to facilities with the appropriate capacity, rather than patients being turned away despite beds being open elsewhere.
“If we have more beds, why are we having no-bed syndrome? I believe the occupancy rate is 60%. So with 100 beds in a hospital, 60 of them are occupied; 40 are open. So now why does somebody come and have a no-bed syndrome?” she questioned.
She explained that a coordinated system tracking available beds — including specialised units such as intensive care, maternity and orthopaedic wards — would help eliminate the delays currently experienced in admitting patients.
“We believe that if we have a proper management system that tells you that, for instance, in real time, Ridge Hospital has one ICU bed, two maternal beds and one orthopaedic bed, when the ambulance is coming, we can know where to take the patient,” she said.
The Deputy Minister maintained that the evidence available to the Ministry shows beds do exist in health facilities, but that weaknesses in coordination and information-sharing are what lead to situations where patients are turned away.
She stressed that improving hospital bed management would be central to ensuring patients receive timely care and to reducing complaints over unavailable beds.
