Philanthropist and businessman Alhaji Seidu Agongo has delivered on a promise set to transform healthcare for some of Ghana’s most vulnerable and forgotten citizens.
On Tuesday, December 30, 2025, the Ghana Police Hospital officially inaugurated a new eight-bed facility funded by Alhaji Agongo to care for “unknown patients, ”individuals brought to the hospital without any traceable relatives.
These patients are often destitute, mentally ill, or victims of road traffic accidents who arrive unconscious, abandoned, or unidentified.
The intervention follows a public appeal by the Ghana Police Service for support to ease the growing burden on the hospital and improve healthcare delivery.
Established in 1976, the Ghana Police Hospital carries a unique national mandate: providing medical care not only to police personnel and their families, but also to suspects, convicts, and members of the general public.
Over the years, caring for unknown persons has become a significant part of its service delivery.
Hospital authorities explained that many unknown patients arrive in critical condition, nameless and without any support system.
The hospital bears the full cost of their treatment, rehabilitation, and reintegration, an expense that now exceeds one million Ghana cedis annually.
In addition, the hospital receives a large number of unidentified bodies. Each year, it conducts mass burials for between 1,000 and 1,200 unknown persons at a cost of over GH¢400,000.
Patients who recover and are later identified are reintegrated into their communities, again at the hospital’s expense.
With an estimated 30 unknown patients admitted monthly and about 10 long-term cases at any given time, the financial and logistical strain has intensified over the years.
Responding to the appeal, Alhaji Agongo, founder of the defunct Heritage Bank, stepped in to construct the eight-bed facility and further pledged to provide quarterly support towards the hospital’s mass burial initiative.
The Ghana Police Service has described the intervention as unprecedented.
The new facility will separate severely neglected patients from the general hospital population, helping to improve infection control, ease congestion, and restore dignity to patients society has largely forgotten.
Hospital management described the project as historic.
Speaking at the inauguration, Alhaji Agongo said the facility represented more than bricks and mortar.
“When I learned about the plight of these unknown patients, people who come in broken, nameless, and abandoned, I said to myself that we as a country needed to act,” he said.
“Humanity is not about what we do for those who know us or can repay us, but for those who cannot.
Nobody is truly unknown, we are all known by one Creator, and that should unite us to uplift one another and make society better.”
He added that the facility would serve as a sanctuary for lives that matter, even when no one comes forward to claim them.
“I hope this will inspire others to look beyond themselves and support causes that restore dignity to the forgotten in our society,” he said.
Hospital officials noted that the intervention will significantly ease pressure on the institution, improve care standards, and reduce its financial burden.
They also expressed hope that the initiative would encourage other individuals and organisations to support the hospital’s humanitarian work.
For decades, the Ghana Police Hospital has carried the responsibility of treating unknown patients and burying unidentified bodies without external support.
Alhaji Agongo’s commitment marks the first time a private citizen has stepped in to share this burden.
As the new facility opens its doors, it symbolises a rare blend of compassion and action, an enduring example of private philanthropy meeting public need.
For the Ghana Police Hospital and the nameless souls it serves, December 30, 2025, marks the beginning of a new chapter of hope.
Alhaji Agongo said his philanthropic work has never been about recognition or personal gain, but about the belief that societies progress when people support one another selflessly.
“We don’t support because we are related; we support because there is a need to make each other better,” he said.
He cited several initiatives reflecting this philosophy, including the establishment of Fanaka University to promote entrepreneurship and practical education; the provision of scholarships and medical support for underprivileged students and patients; and the construction of a ward for the Child Emergency Unit at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.
He also donated medical supplies during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported flood victims, efforts he described as aimed at “meeting urgent needs and restoring dignity.”
Source: myxyzonline.com
