The CEO of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, has said politicians and top guns seek medical attention at the facility all the time, contrary to popular claims that they preferred flying out of the country for medical attention to using local facilities.

There have been claims that Ghanaian politicians are not investing in the health sector because they travel abroad for medical checkups, hence, do not care about the needs of public hospitals like Korle-Bu and the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals as well as other public health facilities where most Ghanaians visit for treatment.

However, Dr Ampomah said this assertion is untrue.

Speaking on the Class Morning Show on Class91.3FM on Thursday, October 6, 2022, Dr Ampomah said: “They come in as private citizens and we are not allowed to disclose their identities but then a lot of the political leadership, the judiciary, parliamentarians, industry leaders all over, many of them come to Korle Bu.”

“What we should also remember is that no matter how much wealth or insurance you’ve acquired for yourself, there are certain conditions that if they happen, you need immediate treatment in the local environment in which you are...it is not a very good plan to think that when something happens to me, I’ll just fly out…” he added.

For this reason, he noted that “that’s why we all need to come together to make sure that our hospitals, especially Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which is the apex hospital, is working and is working well and it’s on a solid footing to be able to provide the kind of service that we all need because we believe that Korle-Bu has the name, and no that about that, so if we are given the necessary wherewithal and resources, we will be able to cater to all health care needs”.

Currently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the third biggest referral centre in Africa.

The facility can boast 2,000 beds, 21 clinical and diagnostic departments and three Centres of Excellence. It also has an average outpatient attendance of 1,500 with about 250 inpatient admissions.

The clinical and diagnostic departments include Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Child Health, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Anaesthesia, Family Medicine/Polyclinic, Accident & Emergency, Psychiatry, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre and Accident & Orthopaedics.  Others are Pharmacy, Pathology, Laboratory and Radiology.

The Hospital also provides sophisticated scientific treatment procedures in various subspecialties such as Neurosurgery, Paediatric surgery, Dental/Oral maxillofacial, Ophthalmology, Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), Renal, Orthopaedics, Oncology, Dermatology, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine.