OPD, administration of St. Anne's Hospital in Damongo closed down as NEDCO disconnect electricity to facility

Correspondence from Savannah Region

The Northern Electricity Distribution Company NEDCo has disconnected the power supply to the St. Anne's Hospital in Damongo for the second time in a month.

This follows the facility's inability to settle an over four million Ghana Cedis electricity bill owed the company.

As a result, the OPD and the administration of the hospital have been closed down.

The electricity company first cut the power supply to the hospital on May 4 and later reconnected after the intervention of the Savannah Regional Minister, Saeed Muhazu Jibril.

However, the electricity company threatened to disconnect them again on May 9 if the debt is not settled.

In a telephone interview, the accountant of the hospital, Rashid Dumba said all efforts to prevent the facility from disconnection have all proven futile.

"We have done everything humanly possible to prevent NEDCo from disconnecting the power supply to the hospital but have not yielded the desired outcome", he stated.

According to him, the medical director of the hospital has resolved to refer cases that come to the facility to a nearby hospital because the hospital can't function without electricity "so the OPD and administration have been closed".

Enraged clients who have been stranded over the development at the facility in an interaction with this reporter described the situation as unfortunate and threatened that they may take to the streets to demonstrate for electricity to be restored to the hospital.

Though the hospital has a power plant, Damba indicated that the cost of fueling it will be extremely expensive for them.

The hospital authorities contend that it is the responsibility of the government to settle its electricity bills per an agreement not to bill clients for electricity.