Sawua Hospital Plagued by Lack of Electricity
The 290-bed capacity Sawua Regional Hospital sits idle in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region as patients overcrowd the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
During a visit to ascertain rationale for the facility’s inoperative state, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was told it had to do with access to electricity and the unmotorable road network to the facility.
Otumfuo made known intentions to have some patients from congested KATH referred to Sawua and was told contractors after noticing a separate transformer was needed to supply the facility with electricity haven’t reported to the site in the last six months.
“If we receive the access to electricity today, we will test equipment in the facility,” one engineer told Otumfuo.
The Ashanti Regional Director of Health Dr Emmanuel Tenkorang who was also at the site with the King told opemsuo.com a transformer had been brought in for the hospital but a few accessories were lacking and thereby the delay.
“We have to talk to the government because I believe that it’s not something very difficult to do. For the electricity, for instance, we have brought in the transformer, we’ve connected the main power line to the site. All that is left is to get some few accessories to connect to the hospital.”
After fixing the issue with the electricity supply, he said machines in the hospital would be tested to make way for the training of medical staff before the opening of the facility to the public.
“We also need to gravel the road and apply bitumen to the surface,” he concluded.
Dr Tenkorang opined that KATH would be relieved if Sawua hospital is operationalized.
Meanwhile the chief of Sawua, Nana Kwaku Amankwaa Sarkodie II expressed concern about the delay in operationalizing the facility during a visit to his Palace by Otumfuo.
He fears that if delayed any longer, medical equipment imported for use would be defective.
Among the places Otumfuo toured in the hospital included the Orthopedic ward, an injection room, general surgery rooms and the Infectious Disease Centre of the facility.
He was accompanied by Sawuahene Nana Kwaku Amankwaa Sarkodie II, Sawuahemaa Nana Akosua Brafi Afisaa II, CEO of KATH, Prof Otchere Addai Mensah, Saamanhene Nana Osei Kwaku II, Hiahene Prof. Oheneba Boachie-Adjei, Kyeame Baffour Kantantankrakyi, Mamsehene Barima Osei Kwadwo II and others.
It will be recalled that the Ashanti Regional Minister, Hon Simon Osei Mensah, while addressing the Ashanti Regional House of Chiefs on November 15, 2023, explained that a 20KV substation is under construction to supply electricity to Sawua Hospital. He said the decision was taken after experts detected machinery of the hospital could not be supported by the community’s transformer.
