Lots of paragraphs, but nothing to show that the President’s directive was accompanied by concrete measures to improve the hospital’s operational capacity and ensure that people seeking emergency care are not turned away.
You cannot impose an operating standard by fiat on an already strained healthcare facility, fail to provide the resources, personnel, and systems needed to meet that standard, and then expect miracles. Healthcare outcomes are shaped by capacity, not administrative fiat.
Ghanaian doctors move to better-resourced health systems and perform exceptionally well. That should tell us something. The problem is often not the competence or commitment of healthcare workers. Fix the systemic challenges, provide the necessary support, and stop treating individual healthcare workers as convenient scapegoats for broader institutional failures.
We praise pilots who refuse to fly unsafe aircraft.
We admire engineers who halt dangerous projects.
Yet somehow, when healthcare leaders make difficult decisions in the interest of safety, some people suddenly believe obedience should matter more than judgment.
Even poultry farmers don't overcrowd a chicken coop but they expect us to overcrowd the hospital with sick humans.
Be there and don't think deeply about the ministers actions
Dear Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh,
As the Member of Parliament for Sefwi Juaboso Constituency and now Minister for Health, you understand better than most the critical role the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) plays in the lives of the people of Sefwi and the entire Western North Region.
Long before the creation of the Western North Region, and even today, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital has remained the principal referral hospital for our people. Having grown up in Sefwi Asawinso (Kesiem), I know firsthand that from Sefwi Osei Kwadwo Krom through the Aowin enclave, including Suaman and Dadieso, all the way to Bibiani, the hospital that handles our most serious medical cases is Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital.
For over seventy years, KATH has faithfully served the middle and northern belts of Ghana, particularly those of us in the Akan forest regions. It has carried the healthcare burden of numerous regions and continues to do so despite immense pressure on its infrastructure, staff, and resources.
Apart from Komfo Anokye, there is no major referral facility within our catchment area capable of handling many critical and specialized medical cases. That is why, as a Health Minister who hails from Sefwi, many expected you to make the strengthening of healthcare infrastructure in this part of the country a major priority.
Komfo Anokye is strategically located at the heart of Ghana and receives patients from every direction. Anyone who spends just thirty minutes observing activity around the hospital’s emergency unit will witness ambulances arriving from the Eastern Region, Western North, Bono, Bono East, Ahafo, Western Region, the Assin, Twifo and Denkyira areas of the Central Region, and of course Ashanti Region itself.
The sight is both remarkable and heartbreaking. Patients often travel for several hours from these areas only to arrive at KATH and be told that there are no available beds.
This reality explains why traditional leaders from Sefwi strongly supported the Heal Komfo Anokye Project. During the fundraising campaign, Sefwi Wiawso Manhene, Katakyie Kwasi Bumangama II, donated GH¢300,000, while Sefwi Anhwiaso Manhene, Ogyeahohoo Yaw Gyebi II, contributed US$5,000. These respected chiefs supported the initiative because they understand the enormous impact KATH has had on the lives of their people and the indispensable role it continues to play.
It is therefore concerning that since your assumption of office as Minister for Health, the Heal Komfo Anokye Project appears to have stalled. Many Ghanaians continue to ask why such a crucial intervention, one that benefits millions of people across several regions, has not been sustained with the urgency it deserves.
Equally worrying is the apparent lack of progress on other key healthcare projects that could significantly ease the burden on Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital:
* The Ashanti Regional Hospital at Sewua remains uncompleted and underutilized.
* The KNUST Teaching Hospital has been left in a state far below its potential.
* The Komfo Anokye Maternity and Children’s Block remains at a standstill.
* The Obuasi Trauma Hospital has yet to fulfill the purpose for which it was established.
* The 500-bed Afari Military Hospital, strategically located on the Kumasi-Sefwi highway, remains largely inaccessible to the many civilians who could benefit from it. For many people from Sefwi, reaching Afari is easier than travelling into central Kumasi to access KATH.
These facilities are not only important to Ashanti Region; they are critical to the healthcare needs of the entire middle belt of Ghana. Their completion and full operation would provide relief for millions of people in Ashanti and surrounding regions.