The management of the Yilo Krobo and Lower Maya Krobo Municipal Health Directorates have warned of a public health emergency if power is not restored to their districts.
The two districts have been without power since July 27 amid a dispute over the installation of prepaid meters, and this is affecting the provision of healthcare, they said in a statement.
In the Yilo Krobo Municipal Directorate, for example, the power outage has caused the relocation of municipal Cold Chain Equipment, which includes vaccine fridges and freezers for ice packs.
The directorate is also spending GH¢500 a day to power a generator.
Ongoing COVID-19 vaccination is also affected as a result vaccination teams, district and sub-district supervisors are not able to charge their mobile phones and tablets, therefore not been able to enter data and monitoring/supervisory reports,” the statement said.
The district hospital has spent GH¢10,975 to power its diesel generator so far, according to the statement.
“The hospital is barely three months old with very little capital and a host of challenges.”
At the Somanya polyclinic, the directorates also said the only generator plant “which was donated by ECG to Somanya polyclinic has been taken back without any explanation by ECG and therefore the facility has no alternative source of power.”
“The power outage has affected all aspects of clinical and public health care in the facility. The most affected areas are maternity units, laboratory services, in-patients, vaccine fridges and administration.”
The directorates have warned that the high cost of fuel incurred in powering generator sets is not sustainable, “and we may not be able to sustain it to provide the quality health care services as expected.”
They have thus appeared to the government and management of ECG to restore electric power supply to all health facilities within the affected areas “in the shortest possible time to avert a possible public health emergency.”