Sandema (U/E), June 11, GNA – Management of the Sandema Hospital in the Builsa North Municipality of the Upper East Region has reiterated appeals to Government, Non-Governmental Organizations, philanthropists and individuals to support the facility with power plant for health care delivery.
The over 30 years obsolete power plant which served the entire facility broke down despite all attempts by Managements of the Hospital and the Regional Health Directorate to repair it.
The Hospital, which is a referral centre for the Municipality and its environs, and also serves some parts of the North East and Upper West Regions, is often plunged into darkness anytime there is power outage in the Municipality.
Mr Prosper Asandem, the Administrator of the Hospital who reiterated Management’s appeal for a new power plant at a meeting of Heads of Departments and staff of the Municipal Assembly after several appeals, said “The generators have broken down beyond repairs.”
The meeting, graced by Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Regional Minister and some key Regional Heads of Departments, and officials of the Regional Coordinating Council, afforded staff in the Municipality the opportunity to interact with the Minister on how to improve service delivery in their respective Departments.
Mr Asandem said the facility had a “small generator” which was not able to supply alternative power to the entire Hospital in critical times, and disclosed that the usage of the generator was based on the Unit with critically ill patients when there was power outage.
“If an entirely new power plant could be procured for the facility, it will be helpful,” the Hospital’s Administrator said.
Prior to the meeting, the Paramount Chief of the Builsa Traditional Area, Nab Azagsuk Azantilow, also appealed to the Minister when he called on him at his palace to support the Hospital with a power plant.
He earlier corroborated the challenges the lack of alternative power supply to the Hospital had on health care delivery as indicated by the Administrator, adding that the lives of patients, especially pregnant women were in danger at the facility.
“You can imagine if a pregnant woman is delivering or there is an ongoing operation and power goes off,” the Paramount Chief said.
Commenting on the issue, Dr Emmanuel Kofi Dzotsi, the Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said “We have sent technicians on several occasions to work on it, but now it is beyond us. And it needs to be changed as early as possible.”
When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the facility to ascertain the condition of the power plant, it observed that the plant in question was obsolete and some portions of it had rusted.
Some patient relatives who expressed their frustrations to the GNA about the erratic power supply in the Municipality and the lack of power plant to serve the Hospital, said Nurses had to use their mobile phone lights to attend to patients when there was power outage.
“My brother is on admission here, and we experienced some power outages, especially at night for the past days he has been admitted. I saw nurses struggling with their phone lights to render services. This facility actually needs a power plant,” a relative of a patient said on condition of anonymity.
GNA