Medical Superintendent of the Effia Nkwanta Hospital, stated that no public health facility can cover electricity bills using Internally Generated Funds (IGF).

Dr Joseph Tambil explained that individuals with National Health Insurance (NHIS) do not pay the full amount, making it challenging for hospitals to settle their bills.

This comes after the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCO) disconnected the Tain District Hospital from the national power grid for over GH¢7 million debt.

This was in line with the Health Ministry's directive for all government health facilities to use IGFs to pay for power.    

The directive which took effect on June 1, has left many district hospitals with colossal debts, leading to the disconnection of five health facilities in the Bono East region as part of the NEDCO’s debt recovery exercise.

But in an interview with JoyNews, Dr Joseph Tambil indicated that NHIS tariffs are considerably low, insufficient to meet the expenses of hospital electricity bills when compared to the rates charged by private health facilities.

“For a common procedure like caesarian section, if you look at the market, the private facilities are taking between GH¢8,000 to about GH¢20,000. NHIS pays us between 600 to 800 cedis for one caesarian section. So you can see the gulf in the differentials.”

“There is no way any public hospital in this country can pay the current electricity bill we are experiencing.”

He believes that with the government’s involvement, there will be a solution to the problem of health facilities using Internal Generated Funds to pay for electricity bills.

Background

The Ministry of Health (MoH) issued a directive for all government health facilities to begin using their internally generated funds (IGF) to pay their electricity bills from June 1, 2023 onwards.

 This is in accordance with a letter signed by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, which revealed that the total indebtedness of the MoH to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) will be used to offset ECG's tax liability to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) through a concessionary agreement.