No more ‘No Bed’ excuse as Health Minister unveils real-time bed monitoring system

The Ministry of Health is introducing a real-time electronic bed management system to improve the coordination of hospital beds and help address Ghana’s persistent “no bed syndrome”.

The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, announced the initiative following a working visit to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, where he was presented with a demonstration of the pilot system.

According to the Minister, the challenge is not necessarily a shortage of hospital beds but the lack of real-time information on available beds across healthcare facilities.

“There are instances where there will be empty beds elsewhere and they go to another facility and they say the place is full. It is just because we don’t have visibility on the number of beds we have in the whole country,” he explained.

Mr Akandoh said he had constituted a small committee to develop a centralised dashboard that would provide real-time information on bed availability across hospitals.

The dashboard, which is expected to be accessible from his office and other command centres, will also show how long patients have remained in emergency units.

“For example, if somebody goes there and they say there’s no bed, I’ll be able to confirm from these screens whether or not there are no beds, whether or not a patient has been at emergency for more than 24 hours,” he said.

The Minister stressed that the system would not create additional physical beds but would improve the management and utilisation of existing capacity.

“This will not necessarily add physical beds but it will help us to manage what we have,” he stressed, dismissing suggestions that the initiative had been presented as a solution that would physically increase the number of hospital beds.

Emergency facilities to be expanded

Mr Akandoh said the electronic system formed part of a broader set of measures being implemented to reduce delays in accessing emergency care.

He disclosed that the government was working to open up the emergency centre at the 37 Military Hospital while also expanding emergency units at major teaching hospitals, including Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Ridge Hospital and Tamale Teaching Hospital.

“There are reforms, expansions, using technology and all that to be able to deal with it, to minimize it so that at least if anybody is in an emergency situation, the probability of surviving becomes very, very high,” he stated.

On the pilot programme, the Minister clarified that the system had not been operating for an extended period, explaining that the committee he established was still at the initial testing stage.

“I set up a small committee to look at this. This is the first time officially they are inviting me to come and see the work they have done,” he said.

He said the facilities currently participating in the pilot include all teaching hospitals, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC).

The system is expected to be expanded to all regional hospitals after the pilot phase and subsequently extended to district hospitals across the country.

Mr Akandoh commended the technical team working on the project and said the Ministry would pursue a rapid nationwide rollout once the initial testing had been successfully completed.