Oladayo Olabampe, the Chairman of the Joint Health Sector Unions at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo state has reacted as protest on Monday rocked the premier institution over power outage since October 26, 2024.
The protest, by both patients and their relatives, followed the disconnection of the hospital by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.
Olabampe told the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday in Ibadan that the hospital needed assistance to survive.
Olabampe, who decried the bill from IBEDC as alarming and outrageous for a hospital such as UCH, said the government had to assist the health facility by stepping in.
He said: “The bill is killing.
“IBEDC put UCH on Band A, but we can’t afford the bill of Band A.
“This is why the hospital management told the company to remove UCH from Band A and put it in Band B.
“But it (IBEDC) did not.
“So, we now want government to prevail on IBEDC to return UCH to Band B where it can afford to pay.
“Philanthropists and well-meaning Nigerians should also come to UCH’s aid and support it.”
The JOHESU Chairman noted that Federal Government-owned hospitals such as UCH were put in place for “welfare”.
Olabimpe added: “Sometimes, some patients don’t even pay because they cannot afford to pay their bills even after we have treated them.
“So, IBEDC should just cooperate with the UCH management to settle some part of the bill for now and reconnect us, while the payment negotiation continues.”
Olabampe said IBEDC has been charging UCH between N70 million and N80 million monthly.
“In addition to this, we still buy diesel because they don’t give us light for 24 hours,” he said.
The JOHESU official assured that the UCH management was doing its best to ensure that light was restored very soon.
He said: “The management is trying to find a way out of this.
“There is nothing much one can do without light other than to manage.”
Olabampe disclosed that the UCH management carried JOHESU along as the whole situation unfolded.
He said: “The management made us understand the situation and their indebtedness, and we hope the power outage will soon be over.
“But IBEDC must remove us from Band A.
“If not, we will continue to run in debts.”
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Meanwhile, relatives of several patients at the hospital have been lamenting the inability to get quality medical attention from the hospital due to the power outage.
Speaking on behalf of some of the patients’ relatives, Ismail Mohammed decried the fact that his father was not attended to because the test result was not out.
Mohammed said: “We did a test for almost two weeks now, but the result is not yet out.
“They have been telling us the same story of ‘no light’ ‘no light’ since then.
“The doctors cannot attend to him till the result is out, and that is the most painful thing.
“We are supposed to have left the hospital before now if the result was out.”
Also, Water Chimee lamented that patients were suffering because the power outage affected everything.
Chimee said: “My baby sister who has been on oxygen has not been attended to because the result of the test we did is not out yet.
“Doctors can’t even commence treatment for her because they need to see the result to know what’s wrong.
“Even, there is no water in the hospital.
“Patients have had to bring in rechargeable torch lights for the doctors to use in seeing.
“We are tired of the whole situation.
“If patients need blood now, there is no light to scan it and if they want to perform surgery there should be blood on the ground normally.
“The situation is really taking its toll on patients.
“Please, the government and relevant stakeholders should come to the aid of the hospital before the situation leads to its total collapse.”
NAN.
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