The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South and a member of the Health Committee, Dr Kingsley Agyemang, has observed that “a hospital cannot become a place of rejection,” following the public uproar over the alleged refusal of emergency care in a recent fatal hit-and-run case.
In a detailed statement on the deteriorating state of emergency medical services in Ghana, the MP warned that the crisis extends beyond individual incidents and reflects deeper structural failures within the national emergency response system.
“These are not isolated administrative challenges,” he stated. “They represent systemic weaknesses within the national emergency response architecture that demand urgent and decisive intervention.”
The Abuakwa South legislator pointed to alarming data showing that 127 out of 318 ambulances under the National Ambulance Service are currently non-operational, representing approximately 40 per cent of the national fleet. He noted that such dysfunction severely compromises response times, particularly in trauma and time-sensitive emergencies.
“In trauma cases, obstetric emergencies, strokes, cardiac events, and other time-sensitive conditions, minutes determine survival outcomes,” he stressed.
He further linked the tragic incident to the persistent “No Bed Syndrome,” explaining that the issue goes beyond mere bed shortages.
“It reflects deeper systemic inefficiencies, including weak referral coordination, inadequate triage management, insufficient high-dependency and step-down facilities, and the overburdening of tertiary hospitals,” he noted.
According to him, when critically injured patients are transferred from facility to facility in search of space, public confidence is eroded, and lives are endangered.
“Emergency healthcare is not optional. It is the foundation upon which public trust in the health system rests,” he emphasised.
The MP called for immediate reforms, including a nationwide technical audit of ambulances, ring-fenced maintenance funding, and the deployment of a real-time national bed availability dashboard to improve coordination and reduce avoidable delays.
“When citizens call for help, they must be confident that an ambulance will arrive and that a hospital will admit and treat them with dignity and urgency,” he concluded.
