When Korle Bu Hospital opened in Accra in 1923, it was built for Africans. That alone made it unusual in colonial West Africa.
The hospital was one of the major projects of Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg, governor of the Gold Coast from 1919 to 1927. It opened in October 1923 with a couple of hundred beds and a small number of wards. More than a century later, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital is the largest hospital in Ghana, with thousands of staff and beds, and one of the leading referral centres in West Africa.
Guggisberg’s Accra
Guggisberg was a Canadian-born British army engineer who came to the Gold Coast with ambitious plans. He built Takoradi Harbour, expanded the railways and roads, founded Achimota College and invested in health. Unusually for a colonial governor of his time, he believed Africans should be trained for senior positions in government and medicine.
Korle Bu, on land near the Korle Lagoon, was designed to provide modern medical care for the African population of Accra and the colony. The name means “the valley of the Korle lagoon” in Ga.
Growth
The hospital expanded steadily through the colonial period and after independence. In 1962 it became the base of the new University of Ghana Medical School, the first in the country, and it was renamed Korle Bu Teaching Hospital. Generations of Ghanaian doctors, nurses and specialists have trained there.
Specialist centres were added over the decades, including the National Cardiothoracic Centre, where many of Ghana’s first open-heart operations were performed, and centres for burns, plastic surgery, radiotherapy and renal care.
Pressure and strain
Korle Bu serves far more patients than it was built for. Patients come from across Ghana and neighbouring countries, and overcrowding, shortages of beds and equipment, and long waits are common complaints. The phrase “no bed syndrome”, used in Ghana when patients are turned away for lack of beds, is closely associated with the hospital’s struggles.
Governments have announced expansion and renovation projects many times, and staff have raised concerns about working conditions and pay. Despite the strain, Korle Bu remains where Ghanaians go when other hospitals cannot help.
A centenary
In 2023, Korle Bu marked its 100th anniversary with events celebrating its history and its role in Ghanaian medicine. Former staff and alumni spoke about training there and about the patients they had treated.
Why it matters
Korle Bu is part of Accra’s identity. Almost every Accra family has a story connected to it: a birth, an operation, a long night on a bench outside a ward.
Guggisberg built it for a colony. A century later, it carries the health of a nation that did not exist when it opened.
