By Chidinma Ewunonu-Aluko, Ibadan
The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has assured the patients and public that the management is doing its best to restore power supply in the hospital.
The UCH Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr Abiodun Adeoye made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Ibadan.
NAN reports that the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC ) disconnected the UCH power supply due to what it called accumulated debts.
Adeoye said while the management had engaged the IBEDC in open discussion, it had also written to the Federal Ministry Of Health for special interventions.
He added that the ministry of Health had also communicated to the ministry of power so the two ministries are doing their best to get a holistic solution to it.
“On our own efforts here, we have put inverter in some critical areas such as clinics and wards, we have generator dedicated to power the theatre, ICU and labour rooms.
“Also, the management constituted an Energy Committee led by Dr Obaro Michael to look into the short term and long term solutions to energy issues in the hospital.
“We feel the pain this might be causing, but we are not folding our hands and watching,” he said.
The UCH CMAC remarked that the major problem was that the IBEDC was charging UCH like a commercial centre, which will not be sustainable.
“The IBEDC should see UCH as a sacred place because we render services to save lives, they send us bill up to N71 million in a month and we only receive overhead of just N14 million.
“This year alone, they gave us bill of N147 million and we have paid N145 out of it, they still disconnected us being the third time this year.
“The current management of UCH inherited some debts since it came in 2019, payment plan which was sustained was made then till they began to charge us as a commercial centre.
“And they disconnect us even without notice, they said we owe N495 million and should pay N250 million, but we can’t have the money and allow our patients to suffer.
“We have also the College of Medicine of University of Ibadan and other stations also consuming the energy, not only UCH; both the UI VC, UCH CMD, management are all doing their best to settle this,” Adeoye said.
He however urged the patients to feel free to come to the management whenever they have any complaint.
“All of us including the CMD are always available and welcoming,” he said.
Meanwhile, some patient’s relations complained that the power outage at the hospital affected them from accessing the proper care that should be given to them.
One of them who prefered anonymous decried that the safety and comfort of the patients were not guaranteed due to the incessant power outage in the hospital.
“The patient’s care is really down because we can’t do simple things like x-ray, sometimes we won’t see water to bath babies and even flush toilets.
“Even the nurses, doctors can’t see very well at night to put drips sometimes, there’s no light in the hospital in the last four, five days now and it has become incessant this period.
“We call on the management, FG, IBEDC to please do something urgently to ensure that light is restored fully to UCH, because we are talking about lives here,” the source said. (NAN)
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