Following the perennial power outage that has been the lot of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State and the report that patients now bring power generators to the hospital, Minister of Power, Chief Bayo Adelabu, is billed to meet with the management of the hospital famed to have catered to the Saudi Royal Family.
The hospital has described the report that patients bring their own generators as inaccurate. The meeting scheduled to proffer a lasting solution to the electricity supply crisis is slated to hold this week at the hospital’s premises in Ibadan.
In November 2024, the video of nurses at UCH using their phones as a source of light went viral.
In a post made on his X (formerly Twitter) page, Law teacher and rights activist, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu said: “The irony is that Ibadan, the location of the @uchnigeria, is the home of #Nigeria‘s Minister for Power, @BayoAdelabu. If the man cannot power up the biggest teaching hospital in the country which is in his community, is it your village that he will….?!”
The hospital management owes the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company unsettled debts running into millions of naira. This has resulted in the disconnection of the electricity power supply to the hospital and the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan.
The Student Union of the University of Ibadan in conjunction with the College of Medicine staged a peaceful protest to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the development but nothing has been done to the effect.
UCH’s Chief Medical Director (CMD), Professor Jesse Otegbayo, in a release, said the hospital does not operate on mini-generators and reassured the general public that the online report is a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the facts.
Otegbayo who said the hospital has made efforts to ensure that it continues to deliver on its core mandates of Clinical Services, Research and Training despite the disconnection by IBEDC from the national grid added that:
“The UCH management is working round the clock to provide alternative and sustainable electricity power to the hospital. Indeed, we have since embarked on a phased approach, including the provision of alternative energy (solar inverters and diesel-powered generators) in critical units such as the wards, accident and emergency, labour ward and theatres.”
According to him, the hospital has continued to engage well-wishers and stakeholders, including the Ministry of Health and IBEDC in a bid to find long-lasting and sustainable solutions to the power challenge and many have supported with generous donations to support the provision of alternative energy.
The release declared “The writer claimed, among other fabricated lies, that patients bring generators to the hospital to provide power to the wards. The hospital management wishes to inform the general public that these allegations are false and unfounded. There is no credibility in that report. The malice and misrepresentation are depicted in the several low-capacity generators displayed by the writer. The UCH does not operate these mini generators.
“Management wishes to reassure the general public that this is a deliberate and malicious misrepresentation of the facts. Despite the disconnection by IBEDC, the hospital has made concerted efforts to ensure that we deliver on our core mandates of Clinical Services, Research and Training.
“The UCH management is working round the clock to provide alternative and sustainable electricity power to the hospital. Indeed, we have since embarked on a phased approach, including the provision of alternative energy (solar inverters and diesel-powered generators) in critical units such as the wards, accident and emergency, labour ward and theatres.”
In all, the experiences of patients accessing healthcare services at UCH, Ibadan and their families have been described as horrid!
