Dr Richard Selormey, General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has urged the government to strengthen peripheral hospitals to prevent the persistent “no bed syndrome” at major facilities such as Korle Bu, Ridge, and Komfo Anokye.

Speaking on the Joy Super Morning Show, Dr Selormey stressed that simply adding beds to the country’s tertiary hospitals will not solve the problem if smaller hospitals are not equipped to handle emergencies closer to where they occur.

“There’s also the challenge of dumping. No matter how many beds we provide in Korle Bu, if all the peripheries are dumping into Korle Bu and are not strengthened, Korle Bu always have no beds. Ridge will always have no bed. Komfo Anokye will always have no bed,” he said.

The issue has been thrust into the spotlight following the reported death of 29‑year‑old engineer Charles Amissah, who allegedly died after being moved between three major hospitals in Accra without being admitted because of claimed bed unavailability.

He added that equipping peripheral facilities with adequate human resources and necessary logistics is crucial to managing cases such as road traffic accidents and other emergencies at the community level.

“It is important that we begin to equip the peripheral facilities both with human resource the necessary logistics to be able to handle a lot more of the cases as close as possible to the communities where the issues happen,” Dr Selormey explained.