KATH Loses 200 Nurses In A Year

Massive exodus of staff has hit the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi, the biggest referral medical facility in the Ashanti Region.

In 2023, a total number of 200 nurses, some of whom are nurses with many years of experience, resigned from KATH in search of greener pastures elsewhere.

The CEO of KATH, Prof. Otchere Addai-Mensah, who confirmed the departures, said the medical facility was struggling to replace the departed personnel.

According to him, personnel of the hospital persist to leave, a development which is not auguring well for the health facility, notably with regards of replacing staff.

“We are currently facing problem of replacement of staff at KATH. In the past year alone, we have had over 200 nurses leave KATH,” the KATH CEO lamented with a grim face.

“Every day, I have had to approve about three to five applications for either leave of absence or resignation, and they are mostly nurses, sometimes radiographers or medical laboratory scientists.

“We are praying that we get the chance to replace these people who are leaving, so that we can persist with the care we are supposed to give to our patients.”

Prof. Addai-Mensah made the unpleasant disclosure when Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, the newly-appointed Minister of Finance, visited KATH on a familiarisation visit.

According to the KATH CEO, despite the mass exodus, the hospital still boasts of dedicated staff, including doctors, nurses and others, who are working to his expectations.

Touching on other issues, he said congestion was a major problem at KATH, which sees an average of 1,000 patients daily from 12 out of the 16 regions in the country.

“Ten ambulances that move in Ghana, six of them heads to KATH, and this is the cause of the congestion here,” he pointed out.

He, therefore, asked for government’s support to help complete ongoing projects at the facility, especially the maternity block project, to decrease the congestion at KATH.

Prof. Addai-Mensah also mentioned retooling as one of the obstacles confronting KATH, and urged the government to help the leading hospital in the Ashanti Region in that area.

He disclosed that KATH has one dialysis machine working at full capacity.

According to him, dialysis is restricted to two patients at KATH at a time, which is not the best, bemoaning that, “We don’t have enough dialysis machines so we need help.”