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The new Board Chairman of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye has assured that the hospital will get a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) this week.

Korle-Bu has been without a CEO since the appointment of Dr Felix Anyaa who was relieved of his duties by President Akufo-Addo on June 6, 2018.

Dr Anyaa worked in an acting capacity as CEO for less than a year before vacating the post.

According to Dr Okoe-Boye who was appointed as CEO on June 12, interviews have already been conducted with several propsective CEOs ahead of the announcement this week.

"From the intelligence I have, I think maybe by the end of today or before the end of the week. Processes have gone on for some time, interviews have gone through and all that and there are people who based on their performances their background and all that," Dr Okoe-Boye said in an interview on Joy FM.

"...Korle-Bu is the yardstick or it's barometer for telling what is happening in the health system. The President is so concerned with the process to make sure that we get somebody who is so efficient and has the background to help justify the confidence that we have and more importantly has very good human relations in terms of working with a Board or a team and from what I hear, I think we are going to get a very good Chief Executive".

Combatting 'no-bed' syndrome

Dr Okoe-Boye said as part of measures to ensure that there were beds to receive patients at the KBTH, he would institute a 24-hour surveillance programme for patients on admission at the referral hospital.

This he explained will free-up beds in the facility for incoming patients to be catered for.

"It must be supreme, we must have somebody around the clock, people who are checking and making sure that immediately your critical situation gets better and you are fit for the wards, you are pushed out. It's like a conveyor belt... The other thing too is that on the wards, there are people who have to leave the wards, sometimes they don't have money, they are owing bad debt, lying on the ward, discharged is on their folder but they cant go home because they have not paid. So, sometimes we have to look at evacuation, what mechanism do we have to pay bad debt so that people can make the beds free for emergencies to move," he stated.