Dr. Opoku Ware Ampomah, Chief Executive Officer of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), has addressed concerns about the recent elevator repairs in the hospital.
His clarification follows the repair of the Surgical Department’s elevator after a visit by Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Ranking Member of the Parliamentary Health Committee.
Dr. Ampomah explained that the issues with the elevators, installed in 2012 with support from the National Health Insurance Authority, have persisted due to voltage fluctuations in the Korle Bu area.
These power surges have been the main cause of frequent malfunctions in the elevators over the last two years.
To address these recurring problems, the hospital had already planned to replace the lifts as part of a broader maintenance and improvement program, detailed in its centenary celebration plans.
The Surgical Department’s head had initiated the procurement process for a new lift, with all necessary approvals secured before the MP’s visit.
Dr. Ampomah stressed that the recent repairs were part of an ongoing plan and not a response to external pressure.
“The elevators were placed there in 2012 through the sponsorship of the National Health Insurance Agency and so over the last two years, we’ve noticed that there seem to be a number of faults happening with the elevators.
“One of the things that has triggered this number of faults is the fact that in the general Korle Bu area there are voltage fluctuations so sometimes there are voltage surges and it affects the functions of the machines but then last year we made up a plan which is on our programme of work.
It is even on our centenary celebration document that we are going to replace the lifts in the tower blocks.”
“So this is something that we are even doing and even for the surgical block specifically the head of the department had written to me and all the approvals had been given through the procurement process to get them a new lift but the fact is that the lifts are not the ordinary type of lifts that are easy to get.
“These are lifts that have to be big enough to take up the hospital bed with some people standing around it. So these have to be custom-made.
So even from the time of order to delivery, it takes a minimum of six months. So we are still going through the process as we speak,” he told Channel One News’ Eno Sarfo in an interview on Tuesday, September 3.
When the recent elevator fault occurred, Dr. Ampomah stated that immediate measures were taken to repair the lift, though the process took longer than anticipated.
He explained that this delay required a reorganization of hospital operations to ensure that emergencies were managed effectively.
Other wards and theaters were designated to handle urgent cases during this time.
“So when this fault happened, we had to take immediate measures to ensure that the lift was repaired. Unfortunately, it took much longer than expected, so we had to reorganize our operations.
We continued to handle emergencies, but we designated other wards and theaters to take on urgent cases and some of the elective procedures. This reorganization lasted for about a week.”
He continued, “The lifts were eventually fixed on Sunday.
However, on Sunday evening, the technician who repaired the lift noticed a sensor that needed replacement.
He advised us not to use the lift on Monday morning until he replaced the sensor, which was done by 10 or 11 a.m. on Monday. After that, normal operations resumed.”
Dr. Ampomah emphasized that the timing of the repair completion was purely coincidental and not influenced by any external comments or visits.
“You think that if something couldn’t be fixed for a whole week and then because somebody came and said something and then suddenly it gets fixed. I mean that is not the fact. It doesn’t even make sense. I think that is just a pure coincidence,” he stated.
