Registrar of the Health Facilities Regulatory Agency (HeFRA), Dr. Winfred Korletey Baah, has disclosed that the Guinness Ghana Clinic operated for about two years without renewing its licence.
Dr. Baah, speaking on Business Edge on Metro TV, said the clinic continued to attend to patients despite having an expired licence, describing the situation as dangerous and unacceptable.
“I will not be able to tell. I think it’s about two years,” he told Kwasi Afriyie.
He described such situations as a serious threat to public safety and warned that health institutions, both public and private, must comply with licensing laws or risk being shut down.
“There are so many facilities like that,” he said.
“People think that because a facility looks nice, it’s safe. But no matter how nice it is, when you get into it, your life is at stake. You won’t try it if you knew.”
Dr. Baah said HeFRA has already closed down over 50 health facilities across the country since he assumed office in March 2025, as part of a nationwide enforcement drive.
“So far, we’ve shut down about 52 facilities,” he noted.
“Some of them have been operating for years without a licence because our capacity was low. But we’ve changed our strategy and decentralised operations to make sure we can monitor better.”
According to him, HeFRA currently has only 137 staff managing health facility regulation across Ghana – a number he described as “woefully inadequate.”
“We’ve taken some local contract staff, about 33 of them, but that’s still not enough.”
He also confirmed that some public health facilities will soon be shut down for operating under unsafe or expired conditions.
“By Friday, I’ll bring a release, and you’ll see one facility we are closing down. It’s very bad,” he said, adding that the upcoming closure will involve a public institution in the Ashanti Region.
Dr. Baah warned that health practitioners who operate without valid licences risk serious legal consequences if anything goes wrong with a patient.
“If you are not licensed at all, your case is dead on arrival,” he cautioned.
“The lawyers will mesmerise you. Once the court knows you are not licensed, you are doomed.”
He reminded Ghanaians that the law requires every facility to display its licence at a visible location for patients to see before receiving care..
“It is even an offence not to display your licence,” he explained.
“If you walk into a hospital and don’t see one, ask them. If they can’t show it, report to HeFRA.”
The Registrar revealed that HeFRA is working to digitise its operations and will soon publish a public list of all licensed health facilities on its website.
“Very soon, you can just go online and check if a hospital is licensed or not,” he said.
He added that the agency has also begun an online licensing system for Community Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, most of which have never been licensed.
“We just deployed the digital tool this week,” he said.
“There are about 6,000 CHPS compounds, and we’re starting with those.”
Dr. Baah urged citizens to remain vigilant and support HeFRA’s mission to ensure that only safe and qualified facilities operate in Ghana. “It’s about lives,” he said.
“We want to make sure that when you walk into a hospital in Ghana, you’re truly safe.”
