Reports of a nationwide scarcity of hospital beds have been denied by the Ministry of Health (MoH), which maintains that current data indicates bed occupancy levels are still below full capacity.
According to Dr Grace Ayensu-Danquah, Deputy Minister of Health, hospital bed occupancy is now at roughly 60%, meaning that many beds are still available across healthcare facilities.
Speaking before the Economy and Development Committee of Parliament, she stated that the problem is not so much a lack of beds as it is the absence of an effective bed management system to organise available capacity.
According to Dr. Ayensu-Danquah, emergency teams would be able to refer patients to hospitals with the right capacity if they had access to real-time data on available beds across institutions.
She asked, “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?”
A coordinated system that monitors available beds, including speciality units like intensive care, maternity, and orthopaedic wards, she claimed, will help reduce patient admission waits.
“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 emphasised that the material available to the Ministry demonstrates that beds exist in health facilities, but that gaps in coordination and information sharing lead to circumstances in which people are turned away.
She emphasised that enhancing hospital bed management is critical to ensuring patients receive timely care and eliminating complaints about unavailable beds.
Source: newsthemegh.com