At Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, the pressure is boiling again. Equipment fails. Beds run short. Patients wait for hours. And when things go wrong, the fastest reflex in Ghana’s public system is the same: find one head to roll. This time, the KATH CEO is in the line of suspension.
But suspending one person will not fix a hospital that serves 8+ million people across Ashanti, Bono, Ahafo, and beyond. Scapegoating the CEO is easy. Fixing the mess is hard. And silencing health professionals who speak up will only make the next crisis worse.
The CEO is not the whole system
Running KATH is like trying to fill a leaking bucket with a cup. Yes, leadership matters. Budgets, staff discipline, and procurement all pass through the CEO’s office. But the CEO does not buy MRI machines with cash from his pocket. He does not set NHIS reimbursement rates. He does not control global supply chains for drugs and spare parts.
When oxygen runs low, when the CT scanner breaks and waits months for parts, when nurses work double shifts because of staff shortages — that’s not one person’s failure. That’s years of underfunding, bureaucratic delays, and broken maintenance systems catching up at once.
If we suspend the CEO today and bring in a new one tomorrow, the broken scanner will still be broken. The drug stock-outs will still happen. The building will still leak when it rains. We’ll be back here in 6 months with a new face and the same headlines.
“Fix the mess” means fixing systems, not faces
1. Maintenance budget that actually works: Hospitals need annual, ring-fenced funds for equipment service. Not “wait till it breaks, then beg for money.” A CT scan that saves 100 lives a week should not die because a $5,000 part takes 8 months to approve.
2. Staff numbers and welfare: Nurses, doctors, and technicians are burning out. You cannot run a teaching hospital on goodwill alone. Hire more staff. Pay on time. Protect them from abuse.
3. Procurement reform: The endless delays in buying drugs and equipment kill patients faster than any single manager can. Speed up processes, audit them, but don’t strangle them.
4. Accountability with data: Instead of blame games, publish monthly data: bed occupancy, drug stock levels, equipment downtime. Let citizens and media track progress. Sunlight is cheaper than inquiries.
Silencing health workers makes the mess worse
The most dangerous part of this cycle is what happens to the nurse or doctor who posts: “We have no gloves” or “The oxygen plant is down.” Too often the response is interdiction, queries, or threats.
That creates silence. And silence in a hospital kills.
Health workers are not enemies of the hospital. They are the early warning system. When they speak, they’re telling management and government: “This pipe will burst next week if you don’t act.” Shoot the messenger and the pipe will still burst — except now, no one warns you.
Other countries learned this the hard way during COVID. The hospitals that survived were the ones where cleaners, nurses, and doctors could report problems without fear. Ghana’s health system needs that same culture.
The real question for all of us
KATH is a national asset, not an Ashanti issue. If it collapses, patients from Tamale to Takoradi suffer. So the question is not “Who do we suspend today?” The question is “What are we building for the next 10 years?”
Don’t scapegoat the CEO. Yes, hold leadership accountable with fair process and evidence. But don’t pretend one suspension is a reform. Fix the procurement. Fund maintenance. Hire staff. Protect whistleblowers.
Because patients don’t care about press releases. They care if there’s oxygen when they can’t breathe, a bed when they’re in pain, and a nurse who isn’t too exhausted to care.
Suspending one CEO feels like action. Fixing KATH is action. And fixing KATH starts by listening to the health professionals on the wards, not silencing them.
Ghana deserves hospitals that work even when the cameras are off. That won’t happen until we stop looking for scapegoats and start repairing systems.