President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Frank Serebour, has cautioned that the healthcare system in the Ashanti Region is on the verge of collapse if urgent measures are not taken to address the region’s widening infrastructure gap.
Dr. Serebour expressed grave concern about the increasing pressure on the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), which serves as the main referral facility in the region. According to him, the excessive strain on KATH has exposed the fragility of the region’s health system and the urgent need for additional facilities.
He also lamented the persistence of the “no-bed syndrome,” a situation he said continues to plague hospitals across the country, largely due to the abandonment of critical health projects.
Two major facilities — the 500-bed Afari Military Hospital and the 250-bed Sewua Hospital, which is expected to become the Ashanti Regional Hospital upon completion — remain uncompleted after missing multiple deadlines.
Dr. Serebour appealed to the government to prioritise the completion of both hospitals to ease the burden on existing health institutions.
“I think it is quite important because the completion of this will expand the capacity of the hospital to take in more patients, doctors, nurses, and other supporting health care workers. That creates employment. Beyond that, the medical schools also take advantage of it,” he stated.
Dr. Serebour emphasised that the Ashanti Region remains underserved in terms of health infrastructure, noting that its designated regional hospital — the Kumasi South Hospital — is too small to meet the region’s needs.
“One of the regions that lacks health facilities is the Ashanti Region, but if you don’t look at it carefully, you will think that we are fine. Our regional hospital is the Kumasi South Hospital, and it is very small. When you go to other regions, they have regional hospitals, teaching hospitals, military hospitals, and other hospitals that care for their health. Yet when you come here and you take out Komfo Anokye, the whole health system collapses,” he said.
Dr. Serebour’s warning comes amid growing public concern over stalled health infrastructure projects across the country and their implications for access to quality healthcare.
