Dr Bernard Okoe Boye is a former Minister of Health
Nearly 70 percent of hospitals that slide into debt distress or eventually shut down do so largely because of unpaid bills accumulated at their emergency units.
That is according to a former Minister of Health, Dr Bernard Okoe Boye.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV on Saturday, February 21, 2026, Dr Okoe Boye painted a sobering picture of the financial pressures facing healthcare facilities across Ghana.
According to him, while much attention is often placed on infrastructure and medical equipment, a deeper crisis lies in how emergency healthcare is financed.
“Beyond the concerns of infrastructure and the lack of equipment, a major issue in the sector is health financing,” he stated.
He explained that emergency departments are, by nature, high-risk financial centres.
He added that patients are treated immediately in life-threatening situations, often without any assurance that the hospital will be paid.
Over time, these unpaid bills pile up, creating significant bad debt for both private and public hospitals, he explained.
To illustrate his point, Dr Okoe Boye described a typical scenario: an accident victim rushed to a well-equipped private facility such as Focus Hospital.
The hospital may have the specialists and equipment needed to save the patient’s life, but families are sometimes asked to make large deposits, in some cases up to GH¢50,000, before treatment can proceed.
“If nobody can raise that amount of money for you, Focus Hospital would like to move you to Ridge Hospital because that is a government facility,” he explained.
He noted that public facilities like Ridge Hospital generally operate at lower costs, and in some instances, the government may absorb part of unpaid bills.
But private hospitals, which rely heavily on Internally Generated Funds, often cannot sustain prolonged emergency care without payment, he stressed.
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Dr Bernard Okoe Boye further described how this dynamic cripples healthcare institutions over time.
“That department is one of the places where you can build a lot of debt if you don’t get a lot of bailout,” he said.
He also referenced Bank Hospital, describing it as one of the best-equipped facilities in Ghana, comparable to hospitals in the United States.
Despite being government-built, he noted that it operates on a self-financing model, meaning deposit requirements are unavoidable.
Similarly, he explained that some patients admitted to private hospitals are later transferred to public hospital not because of a lack of expertise or equipment, but purely due to financial constraints.
“In this case, the referral is not because they do not have the expertise and equipment, but because of finance,” he emphasised.
As a possible solution, Dr Okoe Boye proposed the establishment of a dedicated emergency healthcare fund, partly financed through motor insurance contributions.
“Going forward, when we pay motor insurance, a percentage should be put into a fund like the Mahama Cares Fund, where any emergency case can be handled at any private hospital, at least for a number of days,” he suggested.
The former Minister of Health further indicated that he believes such a fund would ensure that accident victims receive immediate, uninterrupted care at private hospitals without being transferred prematurely due to inability to pay.
“If your life could have been saved, the agreed time could at least save you,” he concluded.
His remarks highlight a painful reality for many Ghanaian families — that in medical emergencies, survival can depend not only on the availability of doctors and equipment, but also on the ability to pay.
NA/AE
Meanwhile, watch GhanaWeb’s exposé on the ‘dark side of Kayamata’ and its devastating impact
Source:
www.ghanaweb.com
