Dr. Daniel Asare, the newly-appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has said he will work with all stakeholders to build sustainable systems for transforming the hospital into a world-class facility.
He noted that the nation’s premier teaching hospital had gone through a lot of transformation since the colonial era, yet it still had many challenges.
“However, working with my management, and with the collective will of the private sector, and every citizen, the hospital would be able to surmount its numerous trials,” Dr Asare said on Monday when the board of the hospital introduced him to the public through the media, at a brief ceremony in Accra.
Dr Asare, prior to his appointment, had practiced for 27 years in the areas of hospital management and clinical care.
Dr Oko Boi, the board chairman of the teaching hospital, expressed his gratitude to his colleagues on the board for their dedication and for the appointment of a CEO to implement its strategies, barely two months after their induction into office.
He said the board had earlier engaged with all key stakeholders to solicit for their approval of the appointment and collaboration to ensure the effective operation and transformation of the hospital to achieve Universal Health Coverage.
Dr Boi said although the board was commissioned at a time when the hospital was faced with the heat of the ‘No Bed Syndrome’, it had worked hard to address the challenge.
However, there was much more to be done to restore public confidence in the quality of service provided at the facility, he said.
He urged the management and staff of the hospital to collaborate with their CEO to bring about transformation by building upon existing infrastructure and systems.
Korle–Bu was established as a general hospital under the Guggisberg administration on October 9, 1923 to address the health needs of the indigenous people.
From an initial 200-bed capacity, it now has a 2,000-bed capacity. It is the third largest hospital in Africa and the leading national referral centre.
Korle-Bu became a teaching hospital in 1962, when the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS) was established for the training of medical doctors.