Correspondence from Bono East

Erratic power supply is a major challenge affecting the activities of health personnel at the Sene West District Hospital in the Bono East Region.

The intermittent power supply to the facility makes it difficult for personnel to effectively discharge their duties.

Ghanaweb is informed that whilst the hospital has to endure low current on a daily basis, intermittent power supply popularly known as “dumsor” has also become a routine.

The situation makes it difficult for critical departments like the laboratory and the theatre to get regular power supply to run the equipment there.

According to the Medical Superintend of the hospital, Dr Anthony Twum, the power situation at the hospital has become a major headache for management as it makes it difficult for equipment such as refrigerators, air conditioners, full blood count Analyser, microscope, anesthetise machine, operation lamp and centrifuge machine to function at their optimal levels.

Dr Twum reveals that in order to ensure that services to their clients are not disrupted, they are sometimes forced to rely on the standby plant but that is not sustainable as it drains the hospital of its Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

“We have been experiencing intermittent power supply to the hospital for over five-six years. We endure low current on daily basis so our refrigerators, air conditioners and other equipment are not able to function as a result of the low current. We always find it difficult to store drugs and samples over a period of time making it difficult to discharge our duties well.”

He revealed that the only way to solve the problem is for the hospital to get its own dedicated transformer and appealed to the District Assembly to come to their aid.