The death of Charles Amissah is not merely a tragedy; it is a painful indictment of a healthcare system that continues to fail the very people it is meant to protect.

While every loss of life is regrettable, the disturbing reality that this death may have been avoidable makes the situation even more troubling.

As a country with decades of self-governance, Ghana should by now be celebrating a resilient and responsive healthcare system. Instead, the nation is confronting the devastating consequences of policy failures, poor coordination, and systemic neglect.

The Cost of Abandoning Existing Systems

According to the expert report led by Prof. Agyekum Badu Akosa, an effective Bed Management Network could likely have saved Mr Amissah’s life. Ghana once had a system with close to 80 per cent national coverage and more than eight years of patient data. Yet, due to the recurring practice of discontinuing inherited projects for political and contractual interests, that progress was abandoned.

The question that must be asked is simple: what has the healthcare system gained from this regression? While authorities pursue new projects and contracts, ordinary Ghanaians continue to suffer the consequences of weakened systems and fragmented emergency care.

Concerns Over the Ambulance Service

Equally worrying is the apparent decline in the effectiveness of the National Ambulance Service. The country inherited more than 300 ambulances and a trained workforce of emergency medical personnel, yet the system appears increasingly overstretched and under-supported.

Serious questions remain unanswered:

Why are Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) no longer receiving Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) training?
Why are frontline personnel being blamed when leadership has failed to provide the tools necessary for effective emergency response?

The Akosa report noted that administering intravenous fluids during transportation could potentially have improved Charles Amissah’s chances of survival. These are not abstract policy discussions; they are matters of life and death.

Doctors Should Not Be Scapegoated

It is unfair to place the burden of systemic failure solely on doctors and frontline health workers who continue to operate under extremely difficult conditions.

Across the country:

Doctors are treating patients in overcrowded corridors;
Improvisation has become routine because of inadequate resources;
Thousands of trained nurses and newly qualified doctors remain unemployed despite dangerous patient-to-doctor ratios in major facilities such as Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ridge Hospital and the Police Hospital.

No doctor takes satisfaction in losing a patient. Referrals are often made in desperate attempts to save lives within an already overburdened system.

The Need for Urgent Action

Ghanaians do not need politically motivated projects or endless contract announcements. What the country urgently requires are functioning hospitals, equipped emergency units, and systems that prioritise patient survival over politics.

Government must:

Employ the thousands of trained doctors and nurses currently without postings;
Reinstate and modernise the national healthcare database and Bed Management System;
Strengthen the ambulance network and emergency response infrastructure;
Complete abandoned and near-complete health facilities across the country.

Our thoughts remain with the family of Charles Amissah. No family should have to endure such a preventable loss. Ghana deserves a healthcare system that places human life above politics, bureaucracy, and institutional complacency.

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Dr Ekua Amoako speaks: Charles Amissah case shows Ghana healthcare problems are worsening

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