KATH doctors back CEO, call query over A&E congestion misplaced

The Komfo Anokye Doctors' Association (KADA) has expressed strong disappointment over the query issued to the Chief Executive Officer of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) following the recent congestion crisis at the hospital’s Accident and Emergency (A&E) Centre.

In a statement issued on June 4, 2026, and signed by its Chairman, Dr Michael Leat, KADA argued that the hospital’s leadership acted responsibly and in the best interest of patient safety during the period of severe overcrowding at the emergency unit.

According to the association, KATH serves as the main tertiary referral facility for the Ashanti Region and much of Ghana’s middle and northern belts, receiving referrals from numerous regions and districts, and providing specialized services that are unavailable in many healthcare facilities across the country.

“The events at the Accident and Emergency Centre reflect a healthcare system under severe strain and should be treated as a crisis requiring urgent intervention,” the statement said.

KADA noted that persistent overcrowding, limited resources, and an increasing referral burden had pushed the hospital to critical levels, threatening its ability to provide safe and timely healthcare services.

Defending management’s decision to liaise with surrounding hospitals and coordinate patient care during the crisis, the association maintained that the move was not a refusal to provide care but rather an act of responsible clinical governance.

“The objective was to ensure that patients continued to receive timely and appropriate care within a functioning healthcare network, rather than remain in an already overwhelmed facility where quality and safety could no longer be guaranteed,” the doctors stated.

The association further argued that it would have been professionally irresponsible for hospital leadership to ignore capacity limitations and allow patients to accumulate under unsafe conditions simply to create the impression that services remained unaffected.

KADA therefore questioned the rationale behind the query issued to the Chief Executive Officer, describing it as a reaction that failed to address the root causes of the crisis.

“We are concerned that the issuance of a query to the Chief Executive Officer appears to be a knee-jerk response to a crisis rather than an effort to address the underlying systemic challenges that precipitated the situation,” the statement emphasized.

The doctors stressed that healthcare leaders who take difficult but necessary decisions in the interest of patient safety should be supported and engaged constructively, rather than subjected to disciplinary actions without a thorough review of the prevailing circumstances.

The association also used the opportunity to draw attention to what it described as a growing disparity in healthcare infrastructure between the Ashanti Region and Greater Accra.

While acknowledging significant investments and expansion of health facilities in the Accra metropolis, KADA lamented that similar development had not occurred in the Ashanti Region, despite the enormous healthcare demands placed on KATH.

The doctors consequently called on the Ministry of Health to expedite the full operationalization of the Afari Military Hospital, the Sewua Hospital, and other strategically located healthcare facilities in the region.

According to the association, making these facilities fully functional would significantly reduce the pressure on KATH, improve patient distribution, shorten waiting times, and strengthen emergency preparedness across the region.

“Our collective objective must always be the preservation of life and the protection of patients,” KADA stated. “We respectfully urge the Ministry to engage the leadership of KATH constructively and focus national attention on resolving these systemic challenges.”