This occurs in response to a demand notice that ECG sent to a number of hospitals around the country, including the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital,
requesting payment for electricity usage or facing disconnection from the national grid.
Speaking in Parliament on March 15, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, the Minority Spokesperson on the Health Committee, urged the government to step in and stated that any disconnections would be terrible.
"The general public or patients who may suffer needlessly as a result of these facilities being disconnected from the national grid are also at risk from these demand notices, in addition to the facilities and their management."
According to Mr. Akandoh, the government must make sure that the continuation of health care is not jeopardized because it is a societal good.
"These demands on internally generated funds are now choking facilities of their ability to settle obligations to utilities and other service providers," he said, adding that since 2017,
government subvention to health institutions has been decreasing and that more goods and services are covered primarily by the IGF.
He continued, saying that the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, for example, had planned to spend GH₵3 million on power bills in 2023; yet, by September of that same year, it had already spent GH₵23.859 million.
The Minority Spokesperson on Health asserts that in order to ascertain whether the Internally Generated Funds at these institutions are adequate to meet the growing expense of utilities,
the government ought to audit the inflows of these funds.
He went on to say that the government needs to determine if it is still reasonable to refuse to pay water and power bills for medical facilities.
"They should implement all required measures, such as the choices mentioned above, to guarantee that no healthcare facility is cut off from the national grid throughout the ECG's revenue collection operation.
The minority also believes that in order to pay for these significant expenditure line items, the government should look for trustworthy funding sources outside of the IGF of healthcare institutions.According to
Mr. Akandoh, in order to prevent service cuts, the government had to think about using the National Health Insurance fund to cover a portion of medical facilities' utility costs.
He continued by saying that Ghanaians' right to healthcare is guaranteed by the constitution and that this right cannot be curtailed.
As the minority in Parliament, we pledge to keep the administration vigilant in order to deliver the