A public dispute between the management of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and its emergency medicine residents intensified on Monday, March 23, 2026, as doctors firmly rejected attempts to dismiss a viral video depicting patients receiving treatment on the floor.
In a press statement, the Emergency Medicine Residents of KBTH pushed back against comments made by the hospital’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Yakubu Seidu Adam, who had characterised the widely circulated footage as unrepresentative of conditions at the facility. The doctors described the management’s response as an attempt to downplay a systemic crisis.
“The video footage is authentic,” the residents’ statement read. “When the surge in patients exhausted all available beds, chairs were provided. When those chairs were also exhausted, patients had no option but to receive care on the floor.”
The residents were particularly critical of suggestions that the footage may have been digitally manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence, calling such assertions “factually inaccurate and an affront to both patients and staff.”
The group also addressed the management’s announcement that 200 new beds had been procured to alleviate the crisis, arguing that the gesture fails to resolve deeper systemic issues. The doctors maintained that additional beds without essential infrastructure would only worsen overcrowding.
“Beds without functional oxygen points, airway equipment, monitoring tools, adequate floor space, and sufficient nursing and physician staffing ratios do not improve care,” the statement said. “They congest an already overwhelmed space.”
The residents called for what they described as a “comprehensive, resourced solution” rather than token gestures.
Beyond the immediate challenges at Korle Bu, the doctors framed the situation as symptomatic of a broader failure within Ghana’s national healthcare system. They pointed to dysfunctional referral pathways that leave tertiary hospitals overwhelmed, the absence of pre-hospital coordination, and the lack of a national bed-tracking system as key drivers of the crisis.
“We do not call for more beds in hallways,” the doctors emphasised. “We call for a strengthened national healthcare grid.”
The residents urged both hospital management and the Ministry of Health to move beyond public relations-focused responses and commit to transparent, systemic reform.
“The evidence is real. The crisis is real. And the response must be equally real,” they concluded.
Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has yet to issue a further response to the residents’ latest statement.
