Medical director of Effia Nkwanta regional hospital, Dr Joseph Tambil, has welcomed a move by parliament which directs the Ministries of Energy and Health to collaborate in finding a lasting solution to matters surrounding electricity supply to health facilities across the country.
According to him, the decision by government to direct public hospitals to pay their own electricity bills was a bad move which compounded the woes of public hospitals across the country. Nonetheless, he expressed optimism that government will see through with the implementation of such directive.
“It is refreshing that finally parliament has found it necessary to deliberate on this matter. This particular situation is not new, it surfaces every now and then…”
Dr Joseph Tambil
Dr Tambil recounted that the situation started in 2012 when there was a directive from Cabinet for hospitals to pay all utility including electricity bills. He indicated that at the time, he was part of the leadership of the medical superintendent group which engaged the minister of health and other key stakeholders.
The engagements, he explained, resulted in no hospital being disconnected from the grid. However, he noted that somewhere in 2017, the matter came up again and was subsequently resolved.
Describing the recurring situation as unfortunate, Dr Tambil stated that in June this year, the same matter came up again. That notwithstanding, he noted that with parliament’s inclusion in the matter, it will find a lasting solution to it.
“It is unfortunate to see district hospitals which are the first point of care for most of Ghanaians confronting this. A number of hospitals have had their power disconnected in one form or the other – it’s just that we don’t make these issues public.
“So, it’s refreshing that parliament is coming in now and we hope that this matter will finally be laid to rest so that we can concentrate on the plenty problems we have as managers of the facilities.”
Dr Joseph Tambil
Problems rendering hospital incapable of footing electricity bills
Commenting on the problems which makes it difficult for public health facilities to internally generating funds to cater to their utility demands, Dr Tambil lamented that the current National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) tariff and the directive that hospitals should “not charge anything out of pocket’, makes it almost impossible for any hospital in the country to pay for electricity.
He highlighted that the NHIS tariffs are so low that hospitals can’t even break even to undertake a common procedure like caesarean section.
“… If you look at the market, the private facilities are taking between GHC8,000 and about GHC20,000. NHIS pays us GHC600 and GHC800 for one caesarean section. So, you can see the gulf in the differentials. We operate in the same market, purchase the same consumables from the same suppliers and they don’t give us any subsidy because we are public facilities, yet we are supposed to be charging so low while others are charging so high. So, it stands to reason that private hospital can pay their electricity bills but there’s no way any public hospital in this country can pay electricity bills…”
Dr Joseph Tambil
It will be recalled that parliament directed the Ministries of Energy and Health to collaborate in finding a lasting solution to matters surrounding electricity supply to health facilities across the country.
This comes after the Member of Parliament for Tain, Adama Sulemana, revealed that the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) had disconnected the Tain District Hospital from the national power grid for owing over GHC7 million.
Although the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh indicated that power has been restored to the health facility, Andrew Asiamah Amoako, the Second Deputy Speaker who chaired today’s sitting, said hospitals must not experience any form of power cut in their healthcare delivery.
The health facility was reportedly disconnected in October by NEDCo over the unpaid debt but was later reconnected after a series of engagements between the power distributor, management of the hospital and other key stakeholders.
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