Korle Bu Teaching Hospital was established in 1923 under the administration of Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg. The facility is the premier tertiary healthcare facility in Ghana and was built initially as a General Hospital to attend to the health needs of Ghanaians.
After its establishment, Korle Bu Hospital witnessed an upsurge in hospital attendance as a result of the proven expertise in its health care delivery. This resulted in serious congestion compelling Government to expand to include the Child Health, Maternity, Medical and the Surgical Blocks in 1953. This increased Korle Bu’s initial 200-bed capacity to 1,200.
The Hospital gained teaching hospital status in 1962 when the School of Medicine and Dentistry, formerly University of Ghana Medical School, was established to train doctors.
Currently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, which is the third biggest referral centre in Africa has 2,000 beds, 21 clinical and diagnostic departments and three Centres of Excellence. It also has an average outpatient attendance of 1,500 with about 250 inpatient admissions.
The clinical and diagnostic departments include Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Child Health, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Anaesthesia, Family Medicine/Polyclinic, Accident & Emergency, Psychiatry, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre and Accident & Orthopaedics. Others are Pharmacy, Pathology, Laboratory and Radiology.
The Hospital also provides sophisticated scientific treatment procedures in various subspecialties such as Neurosurgery, Paediatric surgery, Dental/Oral maxillofacial, Ophthalmology, Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT), Renal, Orthopaedics, Oncology, Dermatology, Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery and Radiotherapy & Nuclear Medicine.
There are three Centres of Excellence in the Hospital, namely, the National Cardiothoracic Centre, the National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre and the National Centre for Radiotherapy and Nuclear Medicine. These Centres attract a sizeable number of clients within the country and from neighbouring countries such as Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Togo and Benin among others.
The promulgation of the Ghana Health Service and Teaching Hospitals Act, Act 525 of 1996 gave the Hospital the power to operate as a semi-autonomous organisation. It draws direction from a Board which is charged with giving broad policy guidance for the smooth administration of the Hospital. The daily administration of the Hospital is, however, vested in the Chief Executive with assistance from seven Directors. The Directors are for Medical Affairs, Nursing Services, Pharmacy, Administration, Finance, Human Resources and General Services.
Currently, the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has 14 Sub-BMCs, namely, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Medicine, Surgery, Trauma & Orthopaedics, National Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Burns Centre, Pathology, Child Health, Polyclinic, Laboratory, Anaesthesia, Radiology, Psychiatry, Accident & Emergency and Allied Surgery Sub-BMCs.
