The 37 Military Hospital has shut down its medical emergency unit for nine days to allow for fumigation.

Hospital authorities say the fumigation is important to ensure the safety of patients.

As a result, no new medical case will be received during the period of the shutdown. Patients already on admission will be transferred to other wards during the period.

The shutdown begins today but the unit will be reopened on May 29, 2018, a statement from the 37 Military Hospital said.

Though he admitted that the shutdown is a source of inconvenience, Brig. Gen Yeboah Agyepong who is Head of the 37 Military Hospital said it is in the best interest of the patients and the hospital as a whole.

He told Joy News Ernest Manu, apart from the medical emergency unit which has been shut down, three other emergency units in the hospital are open for business.

He said the hospital cannot adopt a piecemeal approach in fumigating the medical emergency unit of the hospital.

“You cannot fumigate half of the unit and fumigate the other half another time,” he said suggesting, that germs may escape to the other end of the unit if a piecemeal approach was adopted.

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service Dr Elia Sory told Joy News it is not out of place for the hospital to shutdown for fumigation.

He said in some hospitals where the load is heavy, they are shutdown at least twice or more in a year for fumigation.

He would rather 37 liaises with other hospitals around to ensure that emergency cases that come to the hospital are transferred.