Two babies dead; another in critical condition over power cut at St Anne’s Hospital

Two babies have died while another is in critical condition at St. Anne’s Hospital in Damongo due to power disconnection to the facility by the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo). Power supply to the hospital was disconnected for the second time last Tuesday due to the facility’s failure to settle an outstanding electricity bill of over four million Ghana cedis.

The head of communications and clinical coordinator of the hospital Dr. Gbeadese Ahmed told Citi News that the two babies were lost because of the inability of the hospital to get blood from the Blood Bank due to lack of power. He added that due to the power situation, the hospital was also unable to test for compatible blood to transfuse to the babies.

“From the very first time they disconnected us, we lost a baby and the second time we lost another. As we speak, there is another one in critical condition and the reason is that we couldn’t transfuse [blood to] them. It looks like almost every day we are going to have a problem to deal with.” Dr Gbeadese added that the hospital has suspended deliveries due to the power disconnection.

On May 4, the electricity company cut off the power supply to the hospital, but it was later reconnected after the intervention of the Savannah Regional Minister, Saeed Muhazu Jibril. However, NEDCo issued a warning stating that it’s team would disconnect the hospital again on May 9 if the outstanding debt remained unpaid.

In a Citi News interview, Mr Rashid Damba, the hospital’s accountant, lamented that efforts to prevent the disconnection had been in vain. “We have done everything humanly possible to prevent NEDCo from disconnecting the power supply to the hospital, but our efforts have not yielded the desired outcome,” he stated.