Dr. Richard Selormey, the General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), has outlined what he says constitutes a functioning emergency system.
These things, he says exist in some parts of the country, but not in its complete form to make an emergency system function in the country.
His comments come on the back of the death of a 29-year-old engineer, Charles Ammisah, an employee of Promasidor Ghana Limited, who was involved in a hit-and-run accident on February 6 this year.
Mr. Amissah died after being denied emergency care by three hospitals –Ridge Hospital, Police Hospital and Korle Bu Teaching Hospital –citing lack of beds to admit him.
He was involved in a hit-and-run accident at the Circle Overpass in Accra and later died after the above mentioned facilities allegedly denied him emergency care.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Tuesday, February 24, 2026, the GMA General Secretary described the composition of a functioning emergency system which he said the state lacks.
“We expect that in a functioning emergency system, right from the point of injury, the responders are well equipped to be able to provide necessary care. Currently the Ambulance Service provides a scoop and run approach where they may not be able to intervene much on their way,” he stated.
The GMA General Secretary continued that the status quo “calls to question, their skill, what could have been within the ambulance, all the way to the facility where they got to.”
He also stressed on the need for a “coordinated approach” where the victim of the emergency is taken into consideration, the requisite equipment needed in the ambulance based on the issue at hand, among other things.
Dr. Selormey noted that where the patient is transferred to, also forms part of the entire system and should all be factored when an incident occurs, as well as its retrieving point.
“…and then where they are referred to. A system that ensures that before an ambulance moves, they know where they are going specifically and not from hospital to hospital and then the retrieving point. Human resources, logistics constraints, etc.”
According to him, until all these things are properly put in place, or be met when there is an emergency, Ghana cannot count itself as a nation with a functioning emergency system.
