Korle Bu Teaching Hospital's accident and emergency department will grow from 65 beds to at least 150 under a government plan to raise emergency capacity at four major hospitals to at least 10% of their functional bed capacity, President John Dramani Mahama said on Friday 6 November 2026.
Speaking at the 68th Annual General Conference of the Ghana Medical Association at Miotso in the Greater Accra Region, held under the theme "The No Bed Syndrome: Reimagining a Befitting Emergency Response System for Ghana", the President said the expansion would cover Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Tamale Teaching Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital, with work expected to begin in 2027.
Korle Bu has a functional bed capacity of 1,500 but only 65 beds in its accident and emergency department, he said, so meeting the 10% target there would mean "more than doubling the current emergency bed capacity from 65 to at least 150 beds". He said the extra beds would be matched with staff, equipment, oxygen and essential supplies.
Bed targets for the other three hospitals were not given in the published accounts.
The President also said the government would buy 100 new ambulances for the National Ambulance Service and procure parts to bring another 100 broken-down ambulances back into service. The Ministry of Health is piloting an Integrated Bed Management and Referral Coordination System linking Korle Bu, Komfo Anokye, Tamale Teaching Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital at Ridge, 37 Military Hospital, the University of Ghana Medical Centre and the National Ambulance Service, so ambulance teams can find hospitals with free capacity.
Other projects he listed include resuming work on the stalled 509-bed maternity and children's block at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, construction of a new 400-bed maternity and children's block at Korle Bu, and opening the Ghana Armed Forces Critical Care and Emergency Hospital to the public. No cost or funding source for the emergency bed expansion was given in the reports; StatsGH has not obtained the full text of the speech.
Sources: MyJoyOnline; Ghana News Agency; YEN Ghana.