Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) has interdicted two medical doctors and two nurses, becoming the first of three major Accra hospitals implicated in the death of a 29-year-old engineer to take formal disciplinary action against its staff.
The announcement on Monday, February 23, 2026, marks the most significant internal accountability step taken since the February 6 death of Charles Amissah, an engineer at Promasidor Ghana Limited, who was struck by a hit-and-run driver at the Nkrumah Circle Overpass in Accra and spent close to three hours being turned away by three hospitals before dying in an ambulance outside Korle Bu.
National Ambulance Service Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) arrived at the scene at 10:35 pm after receiving a call at 10:32 pm, and spent nearly two and a half hours ferrying Amissah to the Police Hospital and then the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge) before reaching Korle Bu. Not a single hospital admitted him, nor did any staff member take his vital signs during the entire period. At Korle Bu, the ambulance crew spent 30 minutes negotiating, warning staff that further transport would place the critically deteriorating patient in serious danger. They were nonetheless told to continue to the University of Ghana Medical Centre. The patient went into cardiac arrest while still outside Korle Bu, and resuscitation attempts failed.
Amissah’s family did not know what had happened to him. When he did not return home to Adenta that night, they reported him missing to police and distributed a social media alert. It was not until February 9, 2026, that they received a response from the Nima Police Station directing them to Korle Bu, where they were informed that Charles Amissah was the unidentified victim and had died.
In a statement issued on Monday, Korle Bu management confirmed that the four interdicted staff members have been asked to step aside while an internal investigation committee conducts a thorough inquiry. The hospital called on all parties connected to the matter to cooperate fully with the committee and said further details would be communicated after the investigation is completed.
The Health Ministry separately constituted a seven-member Investigation Committee chaired by Alhaji Dr. Inua Yusuf, Head of Legal Affairs at the Ministry, to conduct a comprehensive and independent inquiry into incidents at both Korle Bu and the Greater Accra Regional Hospital. The committee’s mandate includes reviewing the effectiveness of existing governance and oversight systems to prevent the denial of emergency care.
The case has sharpened a longer-standing national conversation about Ghana’s healthcare infrastructure deficit. The country currently has only 0.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people, far below the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) minimum recommendation of five. A 2023 national health facility assessment found that actual inpatient bed numbers were 4,299 fewer than officially authorised, meaning beds are being decommissioned without replacement.
The interdiction of the four Korle Bu staff members is the first concrete disciplinary action to emerge from the Charles Amissah case. Whether similar action will follow at the Police Hospital and Ridge Hospital remains to be seen.
