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For over three months now, scores of relatives of patients on admission at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi have turned the wayside in front of the Accident and Emergency Centre of the hospital into their living quarters. They sleep, bath, cook and carry out all their activities there as though they would at home. The Finder�s visit to the place revealed packed buckets, bags, brooms cartons, pillows and ice chest belonging to the squatters. While many of them sought refuge in the shade of a nearby tree, others stood in the scorching sun, with some clutching to bars on the wall of the hospital. The hospital allows only the parents of children on admission to stay in the wards of the hospital with their children. All others are supposed to find their own places to stay while they take care of their sick relatives on admission. Such relatives normally have to leave the premises of the hospital after normal visiting hours. But the squatters, who had pitched camp in front of the hospital, claimed to have come from distant places in the metropolis and other regions. Some said during the interview that they had lived at the entrance of the hospital for more than three months and would continue to be there for as long as their relatives remained on admission because they could not afford the rates being charged at guest houses and hotels while they still needed to spend money in taking care of their sick relatives. One of the squatters, who gave his name as Nana Kwame, said he had been sleeping at the hospital�s entrance for nearly three months. He said he had travelled all the way from Enchi and could not afford to travel up and down everyday. �I can�t pay for a hotel and I don�t know anybody in Kumasi with whom to put up while here so I have to sleep by this gutter while I take care of my brother. All I need is a carton which I spread about by the gutter and sleep,� he narrated, adding, �Life has been very difficult since, like all the others, you cannot sleep well because of mosquito bites and frequent thefts of our belongings.� Another squatter, who gave her name as Yaa, said it was difficult to travel from the Brong Ahafo Regional and end up sleeping by the wayside. She complained that even in their sorry situation, security men at the hospital sometimes demanded bribes from them before allowing them into the premises to see their sick relatives. �They treat us like trash. They don�t even allow food vendors to stop by. One day, a kenkey seller had her entire food booted away by a security man because she had stopped for us to buy some food,� she complained. The stories of several others were no different. They made an appeal to the hospital authorities to create some decent space for them. �Even criminal have cells; mad people have the mental homes and refugees have tents in which they survive with some comfort. The hospital and government should make some efforts in this regard. We are really suffering,� one squatter lamented. Although they appeared to worry a lot about the situation they described as a nuisance, authorities at the hospital maintained in an interview with The Finder that it was not the hospital�s responsibility to cater for relatives of patients. The Public Relations Manager of KATH, Mr. Kwame Frimpong, said they had tried on a number of occasions to get the squatters to move away from the entrance, but they refused. �We know that it is not our responsibility and their continued stay there creates a lot of nuisance and filth in the place. But we have attached some human face to our efforts trying not to use force in the process,� he said, explaining, �Nowhere does a hospital take up the responsibility to provide accommodation for relatives of patients.� He said that even if the hospital had anything to do by way of support, it would be done purely on humanitarian grounds. �At the moment, we are even faced with the challenge of providing enough decent spaces for patients,� he said. Somewhere last year, he said the hospital commissioned its Research and Development Unit to explore the possibility of establishing a partnership with some private entities so they could put up a place for the relatives. He said that the relatives were not willing to pay for their accommodation. �Even those who were willing to make any financial commitment in that way said they could only pay as low as GH�1 per night,� he said, explaining that this discouraged a number of people who would otherwise have been interested. �We are currently in consultation with the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly and others with regard to the issue. But nothing positive has come up yet,� he said and added that the hospital was ready to allocate a piece of land should any private developer show interest.