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The Ashanti Regional Health Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang has condemned power disconnection at various health facilities in the region.

According to him, it has been impeding healthcare delivery.

He said the act carried out by the Electricity Company of Ghana has been causing patients lives citing an incident where pre- term babies placed in incubators were left to their fate when power at a health facility was disconnected.

“Imagine operating on a patient in a theatre and the power gets disconnected, at that moment what will become of this patient,” he asked.

He admitted that various health facilities are in huge electricity debts but revealed that the facilities cannot afford to settle the debts in full therefore asked government to find ways to settle these debts.

Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang speaking to the media at the Ashanti Regional Health Service 2023 Annual Performance Review suggested that settling the huge electricity debts may come in two folds, thus billing the patients or the government taking up the bills.

We must also bear in mind that allowing patients to pay electricity bills too will come with another headache since these patients are already struggling to pay for their medical bills.

The Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital ( KATH) is said to be owing over Ghc 27 million of electricity bills and not to talk of other hospitals, clinics and health centres in the region.

Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang has called for consultative dialogue between the Ministry of Finance and Health Ministry to find measures to address these outstanding debts.

The National Taskforce of the Electricity Company of Ghana threatened to disconnect hospitals from the national grid due to outstanding debts owed the power distributor.

This move is part of the ECG’s comprehensive effort to recover funds owed by customers to strengthen its operational capabilities.