Healthcare delivery at the newly-constructed Fomena Government Hospital is being hampered, following unstable power supply to the health facility.This came to light when the Paramount Chief for Adansi Traditional Area, Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II, paid a working visit to the hospital.
Bringing to fore the challenges confronting the hospital, the administrator of the facility, Mr. Agyenim Boateng, expressed worry over the power situation in the hospital.
“We have observed that every evening, from 19:00-22:00 GMT, we encounter low voltage. The light goes and comes several times. It was horrible yesterday”, Mr Boateng said.
According to him, the hospital enjoys favourable power supply during the day, when residents in the area have left home for work. However, the challenge starts in the evening when people have closed from work.
“We do not have a problem working during the day, but we rather observe challenges in the evening, when people have closed from work, where the power is not stable,” he told Adansihene and his entourage.
“This development is having a toll on our automatic system, which goes off intermittently. If we do not protect this property, it would be destroyed”, he added.
He told the paramount chief and his entourage that the power consumption in the area had exceeded the capacity of the transformer serving the people. He subsequently pleaded with traditional authorities to engage the ECG to correct this challenge.
“We want them to provide the hospital with a special line, which solely serves the hospital”, he pleaded.
On her part, the medical superintendent of the Hospital, Dr Abena Yawson, appealed to the chiefs to engage the state to get them a Chemistry analyser to help the facility.
Dr Yawson also expressed worry over the exodus of health workers from the health sector for greener pastures, a development she indicated was affecting healthcare delivery.
This situation, according to her, creates a challenge since the state is not ready to recruit health workers.
She subsequently appealed to health workers who are seeking for transfer to consider coming to Fomena Government Hospital to work.
Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II acknowledged the complaints of the hospital. He, however, indicated that the traditional council was cash-trapped, citing low sales of land and low royalties as the cause of their budgetary constraint.
He bemoaned why fifty-five percent of the royalties that used to come to the traditional council and used for developmental projects have been given to the assemblies.
“We do not have areas where we sell land for GH40,000 and the likes, so source of revenue has been tough for us”, he indicated.
“Since the whites came for large deposits of our gold,every government that comes to power has its focus on our resources; Government takes ninety percent and the meagre royalties, which we used to enjoy from the minerals has been ten percent, and it goes to the stool lands,” Opagyakotwere Bonsra Afriyie II lamented.
