Minority kicks against directive to public hospitals to pay electricity bills

Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa,  has opposed the government’s new directive urging public hospitals to pay their electricity bills using Internally Generated Funds (IGFs).

Reacting to the new directive in Parliament on Thursday, December 14, he said the policy was “outrageous” and must be reversed immediately.

Mr Ablakwa’s comment comes after Tain MP Adama Sulemana revealed that the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) had disconnected the Tain District Hospital from the national power grid for owing over GH¢7 million.

Mr Sulemana urged parliament to compel the government to bear the electricity cost to run the Tain District Hospital and other district hospitals effectively to avoid further power cuts.

“At least as for hospitals, they must be exempted from these disconnections. They have to be exempted, especially as this is a new policy. They have to be exempted,” Mr Ablakwa said.

“I mean, imagine preterm babies who are in incubators, and then they disconnect; we’re just killing the children”.

“It is crucial; it is about human life, it is about the right to life…This new policy, which started in June 2023, is alien to our country; we have never had this policy. It’s so alien it must be reversed,” the North Tongu MP noted.

The directive, which took effect on June 1, has left many district hospitals with colossal debts, leading to the disconnection of five health facilities in the Bono East Region as part of the NEDCo’s debt recovery exercise.