Health regulator launches inquiry into death of accident victim denied care by 3 hospitals

Ghana's health facilities regulator has launched an urgent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 29-year-old engineer who was allegedly refused emergency treatment by three major hospitals in Accra, spending his final hours being shuttled between facilities in the back of an ambulance.

The Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA) announced on Monday that it had initiated a "full-scale investigation" into the death of Charles Amissah, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a hit-and-run crash after being turned away from the Police Hospital, the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), and the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital over a period of nearly three hours.

In a statement released on February 16, 2026, HeFRA described the incident as "deeply distressing," adding that it views the allegations with "utmost seriousness" . The Agency, established under the Health Institutions and Facilities Act, 2011 (Act 829), signalled its intent to pursue the matter with vigour.

"HeFRA is determined to get to the bottom of this matter," the statement read, as signed by the Acting Registrar, Dr Winfred Korletey Baah .

Background

The tragedy began on the night of February 6, 2026, when Mr Amissah was struck by a hit-and-run driver at the Nkrumah Circle Overpass. Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) from the National Ambulance Service received a walk-in call at 22:32 and were on the scene within three minutes. They found the young engineer lying supine on the road with profuse bleeding from a deep shoulder laceration.

According to a situational report (SITREP) obtained by Graphic Online, the crew acted with textbook precision: they controlled the bleeding, applied a cervical collar, log-rolled the patient onto a spine board, and loaded him into the ambulance. Oxygen therapy was initiated, and vital signs were monitored every five minutes. His initial readings—BP: 120/90 mmHg, Pulse: 100 bpm—suggested a viable window for intervention.

What followed, however, was a grim odyssey through the capital's healthcare landscape. The ambulance first arrived at the Police Hospital at 22:43, where staff refused admission due to the unavailability of beds. The crew offered to use the ambulance trolley to ease the space constraints, but were reportedly told there was "no space within the facility."

They moved on to Ridge Hospital at 22:58, where the patient was rejected "for the same reason" . By 23:20, they had arrived at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the country's premier referral centre. There, too, they were turned away and advised to continue to the University of Ghana Medical Centre (UGMC) at Legon.

By this point, the patient's condition was deteriorating. The EMTs objected to further transport, arguing that continued movement could place him in a dangerous situation . For more than 30 minutes at Korle Bu, they negotiated—pleaded—for someone to attend to the man in their care. No hospital staff came out to assess the casualty. No vital signs were taken.

Shortly before midnight, Mr Amissah went into cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was immediately initiated by the ambulance crew but yielded no positive outcome. It was only then that a Dr Nkrumah, the duty officer, emerged to certify the patient dead and instructed the crew to convey the body to the mortuary. The time was 00:50 on February 7. Mr Amissah had been in the care of the state's emergency services for nearly two and a half hours, during which no hospital accepted him.

His family, unaware of his fate, had reported him missing to the Adenta Police Station. They circulated a poster on social media describing the clothes he was last seen wearing: "a red round neck shirt, Jam-suit trousers and red shoes" . It was not until Monday, February 9, that they received a response from the Nima Police Station and made the grim journey to the Korle Bu mortuary, where they identified their 29-year-old relative.

System under scrutiny

The case has reignited public outrage over the so-called "no-bed syndrome" that has plagued Ghana's healthcare system for years. It has also drawn attention to the apparent disregard for long-standing directives. In 2018, the then Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare, issued a clear instruction that no patient should be denied emergency care due to a lack of beds, noting that emergencies could be managed on couches, tables, or wheelchairs. Last Friday's events suggest that directive was ignored.

In his statement, HeFRA's Acting Registrar assured the family and the public that the investigation would be both "thorough and transparent" . The Agency added that the findings, upon completion, would be communicated to the sector minister, and warned that it "will not hesitate to sanction any health facility found to have violated any regulatory provision relating to emergency healthcare services".

The investigation by HeFRA runs parallel to a separate probe announced by the Health Minister, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who has pledged to chair a committee investigating the incident. Speaking on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, the Minister expressed devastation at the reports, stating, "We are going to investigate this matter. By Monday, the committee should be in action, and I am going to chair it myself".

As part of broader reforms, the Minister has also proposed the establishment of a centralised call centre to monitor bed availability in real-time, providing visibility of vacant spaces and directing patients to facilities with capacity.