The Health Minister-designate, Bernard Okoe-Boye, has advised health facilities to make use of alternative power sources, especially generator sets, in response to the recent erratic power supply.
This recommendation comes in light of calls for health facilities to be exempted from the ongoing intermittent power cuts due to their adverse impact on healthcare delivery.
During a press briefing held during his visit to the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Okoe-Boye dismissed claims of neglect toward the health sector and urged the public to discuss these issues objectively.
He emphasised that hospitals are part of the country and are therefore affected by any challenges the nation faces.
Dr. Okoe-Boye stressed the importance of hospitals being adequately prepared to handle power outages, especially during critical times when an uninterrupted power supply is crucial for patient care.
He also highlighted the need for health facilities to have reliable backup power sources like generator sets to ensure continuous operations during periods of power cuts.
“Because someone did a video of one minute, and 40 seconds and said lights have gone out, everybody goes emotional. The truth is that, if the country experiences some issues with power availability, hospitals are not outside the country, they will also experience some.”
“Another truth is that most of our hospitals have standby power plants, but just like management of a house, you can go to a house, they have a generator but maybe the generator has an issue.
“The one to put in petrol has an issue. Let’s stick to the essentials. Let’s ask a hospital, how is your generator? Is it working? If it’s not working, have you approached the ministry? If it’s working, who was in charge? Why didn’t you make it work? I don’t want to go into the details. We should not get sensational. Let’s stick to the essentials.
“If we want to discuss power supply in hospitals and standby generators, let’s discuss it. That is the way to make progress. You can do an audit, in Accra, there are 40 government hospitals, out of the 40, about thirty have power plants. Ten don’t have. Doctor, what are you doing about it? That is the way to make progress,” the minister-designate said.
Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has assured that the ongoing power crisis, commonly known as “dumsor,” experienced by Ghanaians will soon be resolved.
In his remarks, Dr. Bawumia reaffirmed government’s commitment to addressing the outages once and for all.
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