#GhanaWebRoadSafety: Korle Bu discloses frightening accident figures and the life-saving role of the hospital

•About 20 to 40 accident victims are transferred to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital on a daily basis

•This is According to statistics provided by the Head of Accident, Emergency and Orthopaedics Department at Korle Bu

•Dr. Frederick Kwarteng in an interview with GhanaWeb made some shocking and disturbing revelations about the accident situation at the hospital

With the disturbing rise in accident cases in recent times, more pressure has been put on Ghana’s health facilities. More accidents mean more patients and the need for more resources and personnel to handle the numbers that come in daily, weekly and quarterly.

This is where Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Ghana’s premier Teaching Hospital comes in. The numbers are scary; so says the Head of the Accident, Emergency and Orthopaedics Department at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr. Frederick Kwarteng.

In an interview with Wonder Ami Hagan, as part of GhanaWeb’s Road Safety Campaign, he gave a breakdown of the worrying numbers of accident victims the hospital receives on the regular.

“The average number of cases vary but we have about 20 a day, sometimes we can have 40 accident victims in a day. And they are brought in with varying degrees of injury, there are a significant number of them whom we have to admit and some of them stay on the wards up to about 3 months because some of the degrees require multiple surgeries.

“Some come with blood in their head, others come with severe damage in the brain and others come in as a result of the head injury, become permanently blind.

“We had instances where they had injuries in all parts of the body and broke all bones,” he continued.

Find out more revealing details in this interview below:

Whilst admitting the hospital has the personnel and bed capacity to deal with these cases, he also noted that it sometimes poses challenges, particularly with financing considering the financial status of the persons who come with some of these cases.

“The volume of number of accident cases we get takes a toll on us by way of the hospital’s resources. Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the country’s premier Teaching Hospital and because we are the very last referral center, we have positioned ourselves at all times in readiness for every kind of injury that is brought. Whatever injury that comes we are not taken by surprise. It may take a toll on our resources but at the end of the day, the hospital is well-positioned to take care of any accident victim that comes in.

“The biggest challenge when it comes to managing accident victims is the financial cost. A number of them come from poor families and resources become a challenge. In fact, in some situations, by the time they are discharged, they don’t even have money to pay for their hospital bills. There are a huge number of them that we have had to refer to the social welfare department.

“We have enough resources in terms of bed capacity and nurses and doctors to take care of them. Our turnaround time is so fast that we don’t allow anyone to stay unattended to,” Dr. Kwarteng furthered.