Patients Reportedly Dying As Theatres Operate Skeletal Services At Nigeria’s First University Teaching Hospital Over Blackout Due To Unpaid Bills

The move by electricity firm, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) to cut off power supply to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Oyo State capital has reportedly led to the death of some patients who could not be attended to, multiple sources have told SaharaReporters.

 

UCH is the first university teaching hospital in Nigeria.

 

According to the sources, the medical facility was six days ago thrown into blackout due to the management’s failure to settle outstanding bills running into millions of naira in favour of the electricity distribution company.

 

SaharaReporters learnt that the blackout caused the death of some patients and that theatres had started running skeletal and emergency services only.

 

“Please help us to call the attention of well-meaning Nigerians to the disconnection of UCH Ibadan by IBEDC for six days now due to non-payment of electricity bills.

 

“People are dying because our theatres now operate skeletal and emergency services only,” a nurse told SaharaReporters.

 

“You cannot replace life, but we can always have a way to clear this debt.”

 

Another staff member added that some people had started taking their loved ones, who were patients in the hospital to other health facilities.

 

The laboratory technologist said that the action of the electricity distribution company had crippled most of the activities in the health institution.

 

She added that the health care system depends on fuel to power life-saving medical equipment and run some essential services in theatres, blood banks and diagnostics centres.

 

“We were told it’s over N600 million because IBEDC charges us N58 million per month, though I can’t ascertain the actual debt,” the source said.

 

“My appeal now is that either the Nigerian government should take over the servicing of power to the hospital and others.”

 

In July 2022, the teaching hospital in an internal memo introduced a rule compelling patients to pay N1,000 daily each for electricity.

 

The management of the health institution had said that it took the decision due to the erratic supply of electricity to the facility.

 

“Following the recurring power outage in the hospital, high cost of electricity tariff and inflation in the price of diesel which have impeded stable power supply, the management has decided to consider measures that can help to facilitate flawless service delivery in the hospital,” the memo had read.

 

“To this end, I write to convey the management’s approval for the mandatory payment of utility fee of N1,000 daily by every patient accessing care in the hospital. You are requested to kindly implement approval with immediate effect.”

 

A few days later, UCH rescinded the decision to add N1,000 electricity fee to the service charge of every admitted patient in the hospital.

 

When contacted, the Chief Information Officer of the teaching hospital, Obafunmilayo Adetuyibi, said nobody died in the hospital due to power outage.

 

The spokesperson said, “We do power sensitive areas of the hospital every day and nobody is asked to pay. Nobody has asked anybody to pay and we run our generator every day but not 24 hours.

 

“We have a 1,000KVA generator that can power the whole hospital but powering the entire hospital requires 250 litres per hour. So what we do is to power the ICU, Labour Ward, and Accident And Emergency Unit. For other hospital wards, we run shifts (rotate power outages); we don’t provide power for 24 hours.”

 

Regarding being disconnected from the national grid because of debt owed to IBEDC, Adetuyibi said, “The hospital is running solemnly on IGR. The federal government is not giving us money for electricity bills. Our electricity bill is over N70 million every month. The generator is there 1,000KVA and runs with 250 litres of diesel per hour. So there is nothing like management asking anybody to pay N1,000.”