Videos of patients treated on floor are real, not AI

Emergency Medicine Residents at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) have rejected claims by hospital management disputing the state of emergency care at the facility, insisting that recent footage showing patients being treated on the floor accurately reflects conditions on the ground.

The hospital’s CEO, Dr. Yakubu Seidu Adam, had dismissed the viral video showing patients lying on the floor, claiming it did not reflect the reality of the emergency wards amid ongoing concerns over the so-called “no-bed syndrome.”

However, in a press statement issued on March 23, the residents said the footage circulating in the public domain is authentic.

“The video footage is authentic. 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 statement said.

They described attempts to label the footage as fabricated or misleading as “factually inaccurate and an affront to both patients and staff.”

The residents also challenged assertions that simply procuring additional beds would resolve the crisis, arguing that the problem extends far beyond numbers.

“Beds without functional oxygen points, airway equipment, monitoring tools, adequate floor space, and sufficient nursing and physician staffing ratios do not improve care,” they stated.

According to the group, such measures could even exacerbate congestion in an already overwhelmed emergency unit.

The doctors further highlighted that the situation at KBTH reflects systemic challenges within Ghana’s healthcare system rather than an isolated institutional problem.

“This crisis is a symptom of a fractured national emergency response system,” they noted, citing dysfunctional referral pathways, lack of pre-hospital coordination, and the absence of a national bed-tracking system.

They explained that patients are often referred to tertiary facilities like KBTH because lower-level facilities lack the capacity to manage them, while critically ill patients frequently arrive without prior notice or initial stabilisation.

“We do not call for more beds in hallways. We call for a strengthened national healthcare grid,” the statement emphasised.

The residents urged hospital management and the Ministry of Health to go beyond public relations responses and commit to comprehensive reforms.

“The evidence is real. The crisis is real. And the response must be equally real,” they said.

The statement adds to growing concerns about the pressure on emergency healthcare services in Ghana, with stakeholders increasingly calling for structural reforms to improve patient care and strengthen system efficiency.