Member of Parliament (MP) for Nabdam in the Upper East region, Mark Kurt Nawaane, has proposed that public hospitals should be powered by solar energy to cut down the cost of electricity bills.
Mr Nawaane who is also the Deputy Ranking Member on the Health Committee of Parliament has said the solar energy will complement power supply from the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The lawmaker made the proposal on Adom FM Burning Issues.
“As part of long term plans, we should combine solar with electricity to reduce the cost. If we have the two source, the heavy hospital equipment can rely on ECG while the light equipment will use the solar power.
“But in the short term, the government must pay the bills or subsidize them for the hospitals to pay,” he said.
This comes in the wake of an announcement by ECG to disconnect about 91 hospitals in various parts of the country from the national grid over-indebtedness.
ECG on Wednesday March 13, issued a notice to the hospitals to settle their debt within 72 hours or face disconnection.
Notable among the hospitals are Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the 37 Military Hospital, Ridge Hospital in the Greater Accra region, Komfo Anokye and Manhyia Government Hospitals in the Ashanti region, Ho Teaching Hospital in the Volta region, and Kyebi Government Hospital in the Eastern region.
This move is part of ECG’s broader strategy to recover customer debts and strengthen its operational capacity.
Reacting to this, Mr Nawaane has warned that if ECG proceeds with the disconnections, it will have severe impact on health care delivery.
According to him, the hospitals could have relied on National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to settle the bills but for diversion which always result in budget cuts.
Mr Nawaane claimed that half of the funds allocated to the NHIS were being redirected to other expenditures, which is affecting the insurance scheme.
“If the Health Minister wants to reverse the policy of hospitals paying the bills then fine, if not, we must increase the NHIS allocation,” he added.
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