Management of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has denied claims that surgeries were cancelled due to recent power outages.
On Monday, April 29, 2024, some media outlets reported that patients requiring surgeries were returned to their wards due to dumsor.
However, management in a press statement, said the reports are false adding that Monday’s reports were due to a low current situation that happened at the facility and lasted about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, management clarified that “two cases at the Department of Surgery were returned to the ward at the end of the day on account of limited space in the recovery ward and not because of power outage. The rest of the other theatres spread across the hospital all carried out their surgeries as scheduled.”
The hospital further assured the general of its commitment to providing excellent health care services.
“As a leading national referral hospital, we wish to assure our patients and the general public that we prioritize their care and will continue to work to provide excellent services to address their health needs”.
However, the Health minister-designate, Dr Okoe-Boye during an interview on Citi on Tuesday, April 30, disclosed that he was at the facility on Monday to inspect some works and interact with management and was informed of the reports moments after leaving.
“Yesterday, I was in Korle Bu and spent about five hours and had engagements with management and from there we visited a GH¢25 million and 35 million Euros centre and when we left, we heard that surgeries had been cancelled because of power outages.
“Korle Bu is not a small hospital, it oversees over 2,000 OPD cases a day and 200 admissions a day. Unfortunately, we create the impression that everything is failing. Korle Bu has standby generators.”
Dr. Okoe Boye further assured that the ministry will ensure that, power outage challenges will be solved at the hospital.
“The theatre has its own gen set and the other units at Korle Bu also have their own gen sets. The point I want to make is that we are assuring that the Ministry is going to work to ensure that all the other units that have power challenges have those challenges addressed”, he assured.
Below is the full statement.
SUBJECT: SURGERIES HAVE NOT BEEN CANCELLED IN KORLE BU
RELEASE: IMMEDIATE
This is to correct a misleading report in sections of the media that claims that surgeries in Korle Bu were cancelled as a result of power outage on Monday, April 29, 2024 and the standby generator was not in use.
The facts therefore are as follows;
1. Work started on all elective cases in our theatres and the operations proceeded as scheduled.
2. However, we experienced low current for about 45 minutes. In the face of the low current that emanated from a problem at one of the substations of ECG, our functional standby generators came on stream and provided power for work to continue until the problem was resolved.
3. Two cases at the Department of Surgery were returned to the ward at the end of the day on account of limited space in the recovery ward and not because of power outage. The rest of the other theatres spread across the hospital all carried out their surgeries as scheduled.
4. As a leading national referral hospital, we wish to assure our patients and the general public that we prioritize their care and will continue to work to provide excellent services to address their health needs.
5. We wish to appeal to the media to exercise great circumspection in publishing stories that are not fully verified because they undermine public confidence and create unnecessary fear and discomfort among our patients.
Thank you.