The government has introduced a pilot national bed management system that will allow health authorities to monitor hospital bed availability and emergency ward occupancy in real time.
The initiative is aimed at improving the use of existing hospital capacity and addressing situations where patients remain in emergency units for prolonged periods amid claims of bed shortages.
Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh said a command centre has been established at the Ridge Hospital to coordinate the system and provide authorities with up-to-date information from participating facilities.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Wednesday, Mr Akandoh said the system enables him to monitor bed availability at hospitals from his office.
“I have a screen in my office, so that if Korle-Bu says there’s no bed, I’m able to see how many beds are available, how many patients are in the emergency,” he said.
The pilot currently covers selected regional and teaching hospitals, with participating facilities required to update information on their available beds and emergency patients.
According to the Minister, the system will also track how long individual patients remain in emergency wards, creating a mechanism for authorities to investigate prolonged stays.
“If you’ve been there for more than 24 hours, and they see you are still there, and they say there is no bed. I will be able to ask questions because there’s a whole command centre in charge of that,” he said.
Mr Akandoh explained that the initiative would not immediately increase the number of hospital beds but would help health authorities manage the available capacity more efficiently.
“So this system will not necessarily add more beds, but it will help us to manage the scarce resources, so that one patient will not be on one bed at emergency for more hours or another,” he said.
Beds to be Barcoded
As part of the system, hospital beds have been assigned barcodes, while designated commanders at participating facilities are responsible for entering and updating information.
“Yes, the beds have barcodes, and there are commanders at each facility to be putting the data in at every moment,” the Minister said.
The system is also being linked to the ambulance service to support decisions on where patients should be transported based on available capacity.
The government is meanwhile expanding emergency and other healthcare infrastructure at major facilities, including Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Tamale Teaching Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital.
At Korle-Bu, the emergency unit currently has about 67 beds, compared with more than 1,000 beds across the hospital.
Mr Akandoh said construction has also begun on a 400-bed facility as part of a wider redevelopment project at Korle-Bu.
“The contractor is on site as I speak to you now. So we call it a hospital within a hospital,” he said.
Ambulance Capacity
The Minister further disclosed that more than 200 ambulances are currently operational after the government insured its ambulance fleet in 2025.
He said the government plans to procure an additional 100 ambulances in 2027 to strengthen the national emergency response system.
“We are going to add 100 brand-new vehicles,” he said.
The combination of real-time bed monitoring, ambulance integration and expanded hospital infrastructure, according to the Minister, is intended to improve coordination across the health system and reduce pressure on emergency units.
