Information reaching DGN Online indicates that a hotel (name withheld) in Tamale has refused to accommodate health workers who were to be quarantined.
DGN Online learnt that the said hotel refused to accommodate the health workers due to an outstanding debt owed them by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the region.
About 40 health workers at the Tamale central hospital where the 80-year-old Covid-19 patient died have demanded that the GHS quarantine them because some of them do not have conducive accommodation to self-quarantine themselves.
The health workers are worried that they might infect their families should they go back to their various homes.
“Some of us are living in compound houses whiles some live in single rooms so you can imagine it’s not possible to quarantine ourselves,” they claimed.
The Northern Regional Health Director, Dr. John B. Eleeza, who confirmed the incident to DGN Online said management of the hotel said they would not allow anybody into the hotel until they pay the debt owed them.
“Management of the hotel said they will not allow us to put anybody there until we make payment for the initial debt.”
He noted that it was difficult to secure accommodation for the health workers to be quarantined.
Dr. Eleeza, however, appealed to the health workers to self isolate themselves and adhere to the health directives until they get a place to accommodate them.
It has emerged that the GHS office in the Northern region is being chased to settle a hotel bill of Gh¢219,000 by the hotel management in Tamale.
The debt is as a result of the hotel being used to quarantine health workers who came into contact with the eight Guineans and two Burkinabes who tested positive for Covid-19 in Tamale in the Northern Region.
Forty health workers at the Tamale Teaching Hospital who got into contact with the foreigners were put on mandatory quarantine.
Meanwhile, the said bill has been forwarded to the Health ministry for the necessary action.