The Tema General Hospital has dispelled reports that a three-day-old baby died due to the power outage at the facility on Tuesday night, March 26.
The Hospital in a statement issued on March 27 confirmed the power outage at the hospital but said “no lives were lost as a result of this power outage.”
It explained that a generator set dedicated to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) “tripped off for a short period” during the outage but was worked on and power was restored to the unit before the national grid restored power to the facility.
The hospital clarified that after the power cut, the facility’s electricians restored power to the facility within two hours.
“The Tema General Hospital assures the general public that the Facility will continue to put the health and safety of its patients at the core of its business,” the statement added.
Ramatu, a 24-year-old woman told TV3 in an interview on Wednesday, March 27 said she lost her three day old baby as a result of the power cut at the facility on Tuesday night.
She said she was informed by doctors at the Tema hospital that she lost her baby as a result of the power cut at the facility.
“I was supposed to go and visit my baby around 4 am this morning [Wednesday] so when I went there, I could not find my baby and the doctor told me to wait outside so I was outside and he came that they are sorry because I have lost my child due to the light out last night [Tuesday Night],” she told TV3’s Joseph Armstrong Gold Alorgbey.
A 24-year-old mother is blaming the Tema General Hospital for the death of her child during the intermittent power outage.
However, the hospital has denied the claim, indicating that they have an automatic standby generator.#TV3NewDay pic.twitter.com/T18bOvXBQr
— #TV3GH (@tv3_ghana) March 28, 2024
The hospital has since denied any death due to the outage.
There have been erratic power cut across the country recently. Due to this, many Ghanaians including the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission has demanded a load-shedding timetable.
But Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh opposed the idea of a load-shedding claiming that actions are in place to “instantly fix” the problem.