A harrowing account from an emergency medicine physician has laid bare the fatal consequences of Ghana’s overwhelmed emergency healthcare system, after her 29-year-old brother was allegedly denied treatment by three major hospitals in Accra following a hit-and-run accident.
Dr. Matilda Amissah, who works at Cape Coast Teaching Hospital, told a national dialogue on emergency care on Thursday that her younger brother, Charles Henry Amissah, an engineer at Promasidor Ghana, died needlessly on February 6 after being turned away from the Police Hospital, Ridge Hospital, and finally Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
The accident occurred at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle Overpass. According to police and ambulance service reports, Mr. Amissah was struck while riding his motorcycle and was picked up within minutes. What followed, Dr. Amissah said, was a fatal cascade of refusals.
“They tried to negotiate to use the trolley, but [Police Hospital] insisted they should go to Ridge Hospital,” she recounted. At Ridge Hospital, staff similarly cited a lack of bed space and redirected the patient to Korle Bu.
By the time he arrived there, it was too late.
Dr. Amissah said she only learned of her brother’s fate days later, when the Nima Police contacted the family about an unidentified victim. Identifying his body at the Korle Bu morgue was devastating.
“He wasn’t even put in the cold room… he had started to decompose,” she said. “He was lying amongst some bodies.”
She observed deep wounds and friction burns, indicating he had been dragged along the road after impact.
As an emergency care specialist, Dr. Amissah was unequivocal: “He could have been saved.”
She noted that the “golden hour” — the critical window following trauma when prompt intervention can mean the difference between life and death — was squandered. “Someone who is bleeding… it could take you a few minutes to maybe an hour to lose that precious window,” she explained. “Police Hospital should have at least looked at his injuries… try to stop the bleed and assess him properly.”
Expressing disbelief that any emergency patient would be turned away, she contrasted the response with protocols at her own hospital. “At Cape Coast, we don’t turn away anybody… even if there is no bed space, we expand using stretchers. You stabilise first. You don’t turn away.”
She appealed to her fellow health workers: “The system is not perfect… but humanity should be very important to us.”
The death of the young engineer has reignited debate over emergency response protocols, hospital capacity, and accountability in Ghana’s health system — particularly in high-density urban areas like Accra, where accidents are frequent and facilities are routinely overstretched.
“At least try,” Dr. Amissah urged. “Even if the system fails, let it not be because we didn’t try”.
