‘Prepaid meters killing hospitals in Upper East’ ON 18 JUNE 2013.

Health care in the Upper East Region faces serious challenges due to the lack of electricity to run health facilities in the region. The situation has come about following the installation of prepaid meters at health facilities in the region. The exercise is in line with the ongoing exercise to migrate all government offices and departments from postpaid electricity meters to prepaid ones being undertaken by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo), a subsidiary of the Volta River Authority. Dr Awoonor-Williams’s concerns The Upper East Regional Director of Health Services, Dr John Koku Awoonor-Williams, speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview after an emergency meeting with some health personnel in Bolgatanga, expressed concern over the situation. He said that was particularly so because the Upper East Region had one of the highest NHIS coverage and health authorities were constantly grappling with issues of insufficient funds due to the poor system of NHIA reimbursement of claims. His meeting was with hospital medical superintendents and districts directors of health services. Dr Awoonor-Williams wondered why it was hard for the authorities to recognise the need to exclude hospital wards, theatres, intensive care units (ICUs), pharmacy rooms, regional medical stores and vaccine cold rooms from the prepaid metre installation exercise being carried out by the VRA. “We are not against the fixing of prepaid meters at health administration offices, but to extend this to those essential facilities beats my imagination,” he noted, and wondered what would happen when, in the middle of the night, power went off while an operation was going on or when someone was on a ventilator at the ICU. He said currently the Bongo Hospital, for instance, was in darkness, for which reason all surgical cases at the hospital and laboratory services were referred to the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital. Dr Awoonor-Williams said all appeals to both the regional and national levels seemed to have fallen on deaf ears and called on the government and the authorities to step in to help address the situation immediately. He said the VRA had installed prepaid meters at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital, the Zebilla Hospital and other clinics and cautioned that the region could face a major disaster if the plan was not reversed. VRA reaction When contacted, the Area Manager of the VRA in charge of the Upper East Region, Mr Danladi Bukari, said the replacement of the credit energy meters with the pre-payment metering systems was in line with a cabinet directive. According to the 2010 population census, the Upper East Region has a population of 1,046,545 and is largely rural. There are six mutual health insurance schemes operating in the region. Total active membership of the schemes in the region at the close of 2012 was 432,083, representing 41.29 per cent of the total population . Story: Benjamin Glover / Daily Graphic Writer’s email: Benjamin.glover@graphic.com.gh http://graphic.com.gh/General-News/prepaid-meters-killing-hospitals-in-upper-east.html