It was built for Europeans. Around 1928, the colonial government opened a hospital on the Ridge in Accra to treat European expatriates, at a time when medical care in the Gold Coast was divided by race. Today the Greater Accra Regional Hospital, still known to most residents as Ridge, treats patients from across the capital.
The Ridge
The Ridge area was one of the colonial European residential quarters of Accra, set on higher ground away from the crowded old town. A hospital there served colonial officials, traders and their families. The original facility had about 191 beds.
After independence
After Ghana’s independence in 1957, the hospital became a district hospital open to all Ghanaians. It grew busier as Accra’s population expanded. In 1997 it was designated as the Ridge Regional Hospital, serving the whole Greater Accra Region.
A new hospital
By the 2010s, the old buildings could not cope with demand. The government launched a redevelopment project, funded through a credit facility involving the Export-Import Bank of the United States and HSBC. President John Mahama inaugurated the first phase of the new hospital in November 2016, and it became fully operational in 2017.
420 beds
The new Greater Accra Regional Hospital has about 420 beds, with modern theatres, emergency services, maternity, paediatric and specialist units. A second phase was planned to raise capacity to about 620 beds.
Busy wards
Ridge is one of the busiest public hospitals in Accra, alongside Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, 37 Military Hospital and La General. Its emergency department receives patients from road accidents and other emergencies across the city.
Using Ridge
Patients should bring their NHIS card or Ghana Card and any previous medical records. Arrive early for outpatient clinics, because queues build quickly. For emergencies, go straight to the emergency unit.
Health tourism hopes
The hospital’s management has spoken of ambitions to make it a centre for health tourism in West Africa, drawing patients who would otherwise travel abroad for treatment.
Pressure on beds
Even with the new building, Ridge carries a heavy load. Accra’s population has grown far faster than its hospital capacity, and doctors at public hospitals in the capital regularly speak about patients turned away for lack of beds, a problem Ghanaians call “no bed syndrome”. Emergency cases from across the region, from road accidents on the Accra-Tema Motorway to referrals from smaller clinics, arrive at Ridge daily. The planned second phase, which would raise capacity towards 620 beds, is seen by health workers as necessary rather than optional. Until it is built, the hospital’s modern wards remain crowded for much of the year.
The hospital that once served only colonial officials now treats Ghanaians from every corner of the region. The building is new. The name Ridge, from the high ground the Europeans chose, has stayed.
