Beyond “No Bed Syndrome”: Organisational failure or leadership deficit? lessons from a preventable tragedy

By: Professor Kwasi DARTEY-BAAH

On Friday, February 6, 2026, a 29-year-old engineer with Promasidor Ghana Limited lost his life after a hit-and-run accident at the Nkrumah Circle Overpass. He was conscious but bleeding. A good Samaritan alerted an ambulance team who responded swiftly and professionally. What followed, however, was a sobering indictment of our systems.

He was transported first to the Police Hospital. No bed. Then to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, Ridge. No bed. Finally, to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Again, no bed. For nearly three hours, a young man in pain and in need of urgent care was driven from one facility to another in the capital city. He died without receiving emergency treatment. This tragedy is painful. It is also instructive.

From a leadership and organisational development perspective, what we witnessed was not merely an operational lapse. It was a systems failure compounded by a leadership deficit. When “no bed” becomes an automatic response to emergency cases, it signals a culture that has prioritised procedure over purpose.

Leadership is tested not in moments of convenience, but in moments of crisis. In those moments, rigid adherence to rules without the application of judgment and empathy becomes dangerous. Every institution has constraints. Beds may indeed be full. Resources may be stretched. Yet leadership requires creative problem-solving under pressure, not bureaucratic retreat.

The troubling question is not only whether beds were available. It is whether compassion was. Would the response have been the same if the patient were a relative of a staff member? When institutions lose the ability to see the human being behind the case file, they risk losing their moral authority. Organisations are reflections of their leadership. Culture flows from the top. If frontline staff feel disempowered to act beyond narrow protocols, then management must be asked hard questions. Are systems designed with flexibility for life-saving interventions? Are teams trained to escalate rather than deflect emergencies? Are boards demanding accountability for outcomes, not just compliance?

Systems do not fail in isolation; they fail when leadership tolerates dysfunction. The recurring phenomenon of “no bed syndrome” suggests a deeper organisational malaise. When a problem becomes normalised, it stops being treated as urgent. This is where governance must step in. Boards and executive leadership across our health institutions must undertake serious introspection. Metrics should not only measure occupancy rates and financial performance but also emergency responsiveness and ethical conduct.

The call to the Ministry of Health is therefore not political; it is structural. A transparent public enquiry is necessary, not to apportion blame hastily, but to identify systemic gaps and enforce corrective action. Training thousands of medical professionals is not enough. We must build cultures that empower them to act decisively to save lives, even under constraint.

It is important to acknowledge the heroes in this story. The good Samaritan and the ambulance team demonstrated urgency, empathy, and commitment. They remind us that compassion still exists within our society. The challenge is to institutionalise that spirit rather than leave it to individual discretion. A society that loses empathy stands on a slippery slope. Institutions that lose empathy lose legitimacy. The death of this young engineer, Charles Amissah, is a tragic loss to his family and to the nation. But if his passing compels us to rethink leadership, redesign systems, and recommit to humane values, then his story may yet serve a transformative purpose.

We cannot afford to normalise preventable deaths. We cannot allow “no bed” to become a death sentence. The time for reflective leadership and decisive reform is now.

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