Work came to a standstill at the Tamale Teaching Hospital between 0800 and 1700 hours on Wednesday following an acute water shortage. Investigations showed that the Laboratory Department was the worst affected, resulting in patients either being sent home or not attended to. Patients had to send for water from home for bathing, a situation they said could worsen their situation. Confirming the water shortage, George Atampugre, Director of Administration of the hospital, said: "work could come to a halt if there is no water for use by our staff, especially the expatriates, some of whom have come to me to complain about the situation". He said the Ghana Water Company Limited supplied water to the hospital once a week, compelling the Administration to spend between 30 million cedis and 40 million cedis a week on water supplied by commercial tankers. Gordon Anafo, Estate Development Officer in charge of the supply of water and his staff said long queues of tankers at the Tamale Water supply point where they had converged for water for commercial purposes, had caused the water problem at the hospital. He said the 100,000-litre capacity water reservoir was inadequate to meet the needs of the hospital The Estate Development Officer said, however, that pressure at the water supply point had reduced as at Thursday evening and the water situation at the hospital had since improved considerably. Source: GNA