Dr Asare Offei, Chairman of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Doctors’ Association, has warned that medical practitioners face significant occupational risks due to the country’s persistent no-bed syndrome.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Tuesday, March 24, Dr Offei explained that when patients cannot be admitted and placed in hospital beds, but are placed on the floor, doctors are forced to bend and strain while providing care.

Over time, this posture can lead to chronic spine problems, potentially requiring specialist treatment.

He emphasised that the ongoing shortage of hospital beds not only compromises patient care but also endangers the long-term health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals.

"In the long term, if a patient is on the floor and you have to squat or bend to be able to do something for the patient as a nurse or a doctor, you won't feel it now, but in the near future you are going to be with the spine surgeon and that is a very huge occupational risk," he lamented.

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"We think that doctors and nurses should not be taken through this as a routine..." He called for steps to solve the challenge." The steps that need to be taken to ensure that this can be reduced or even solved should be taken."