The Minister of Health designate, Dr Bernard Okoe-Boye, has announced plans to secure funding for hospital electricity bills to prevent disconnections.
The Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) had previously issued notices to 91 hospitals with outstanding bills, threatening disconnection from the national grid if payments were not made.
Before this instruction, the Ministry of Health (MoH) had directed all government health facilities to, from June 1, 2023, use Internally Generated Funds (IGF) to pay their electricity bills.
On May 15, speaking at the Health Sector Annual Summit 2024, Dr Okoe-Boye acknowledged that the directive had caused some harm to some of the health facilities.
“Public hospitals in Ghana are not finding it easy to pay some of their electricity bills. Health service providers especially have bemoaned the use of 40 percent of their revenue to pay electricity bills.”
He further stated that the Health Ministry is taking measures to support government hospitals in the payment of their electricity bills.
“Additionally, the electricity company of Ghana issued a demand notice to some 91 hospitals with outstanding bills, warning of disconnection should they fail to pay their bills. We have had some discussions with the Ministry of Finance, and the government has worked out an arrangement to bring relief to all these hospitals.
“Going forward, we are working on modalities so that we are efficient with our energy use in our hospitals.”
source: city newsroom
