“Hospitals Without Healing”: CDD Fellow Slams Ghana’s Misplaced Health Priorities
Only five percent of Ghana’s consultation rooms possess the basic tools required to diagnose patients properly, yet governments keep celebrating new hospital buildings, says pharmacist and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD‑Ghana) fellow Kwame Sarpong Asiedu. Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express late Wednesday, 23 April 2025, Asiedu branded that contradiction “political dishonesty” and urged health professionals to confront policymakers—or refuse to serve in dysfunctional facilities.
Citing the Holistic Assessment of Health Program of Work, a section of the broader Health Harmonisation Assessment Report endorsed by the Ministry of Health, Ghana Health Service, the Global Fund and the World Health Organisation, Asiedu stressed the figures are not his opinion. “It is in the report commissioned by the Government of Ghana and accepted internationally,” he said. The document’s most jarring revelation is that 95 percent of consulting rooms lack essential diagnostic equipment, making accurate patient assessment virtually impossible.
Despite this evidence, successive administrations have channelled millions of cedis into headline‑grabbing hospital construction rather than rectifying foundational gaps—like equipping existing examination rooms, maintaining medical devices and stocking laboratories. “We jettisoned that report and went into building hospitals,” Asiedu lamented, arguing that shiny new wards become “hollow shells of functionality” when they cannot deliver basic diagnostics.
He challenged colleagues to show moral courage. Referring to recent friction between Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh and the ousted CEO of Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH), Asiedu said he struggles to sympathise with leaders who knew the data yet remained in charge. “If decisions contradict the assessment, we should walk away. It’s as simple as that,” he declared. Including himself among those who had read the findings—alongside GMA General Secretary Richard Salomey and the Pharmaceutical Society president—he asked why professionals sat silently while substandard conditions persisted.
Asiedu condemned “political dishonesty” that prizes ribbon‑cutting over readiness to heal, warning that health‑care workers who stay silent become complicit. “We have our colleagues superintending when what is in the reports is not being done,” he said, adding that he had publicly argued no one should work under such unsafe conditions.
The fellow’s core message was stark: data already exposes Ghana’s health‑system crisis; what’s missing is the resolve to act on it. “How do you sit down when those reports say what they say?” he asked. “We are building structures and calling them hospitals, but inside, they cannot treat.” Until leaders equip consultation rooms and fund essential diagnostics, Asiedu concluded, new buildings will remain monuments to misplaced priorities rather than centres of care.
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