FIJ
Doctors at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, used phone lights to perform a surgery and transferred an expectant patient in need of surgical intervention to a private hospital amid a month-long outage, FIJ has learnt.
In late February, news made the rounds that the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) had decided to stop supplying power to UCH over an unpaid N500 million electricity bill.
During the period, Dr. Jesse Otegbayo, the hospital’s chief medical director, confirmed that power supply to the hospital had been disconnected but did not disclose the reasons for the development.
IBEDC subsequently claimed to have written UCH more than four times to clear its debt but to no avail.
Since then, officials at the 67-year-old hospital have been running services without power.
The power disconnection issue is beginning to take a heavy toll on the institution’s patients, their family members and medical staff, as tragedies are now being recorded in their numbers.
FROM AN EXPECTANT MOTHER
Adenike Jonathan (not real name), a 35-year-old expectant mother at one of UCH’s lying-in wards, spoke to FIJ on the difficulties she and other women had faced at the hospital due to a lack of power supply.
“There has been no electricity or water supply since I got here three weeks ago,” Jonathan told FIJ on Wednesday.
“I was meant to undergo surgery long before now, but that has not happened because of the power outage.
“Since I got here, I have witnessed up to six cases of patients, especially expectant mothers, being told to go home and come back because of the same power issue in the hospital complex.
“Apart from that, I also have a heavily pregnant friend who was asked to come back next week for delivery. She was supposed to be admitted at the beginning of this week, but now, due to the situation on the ground, her admission has been shifted to next week.
“Right now, she is experiencing contractions from time to time, and there is no hope of her getting her baby delivered right here in UCH.”
DOCTORS PERFOMED A SURGERY WITH PHONE LIGHTSA UCH ward in darkness
Jonathan told FIJ how a team of doctors performed an emergency surgery on a pregnant woman with lights from their phones.
“Around 3.45 am today, a team of doctors had to perform an emergency surgery on a heavily pregnant woman,” Jonathan said.
“This led to the hospital management turning on the generator to aid the surgery. After a few hours, however, the generator went off while the surgery was still ongoing, and the doctors had to finish up on the woman with the lights from their phones.
“I have never seen anything like that before in my life. It is quite shocking.
“The toilets are messed up, and the nurses administer drugs to patients with lights from their phones at night.
“They also take patients’ vitals with the lights from their phones, and the entire place looks like a graveyard in the evenings.
“In the last five days, we have not had water. I have been taking my bath with bags of pure water. A bag of pure water now goes for N400. That is the amount I spend every day before I can have my bath.”
NO DIESEL, NO SURGERY
Another expectant mother, who asked not to be named, told FIJ of a recent incident at another lying-in ward at UCH.
“Last week, a pregnant woman who was already experiencing contractions needed to be operated upon urgently,” the patient said.
“Unfortunately, it was later made known that UCH had no diesel in one of the generators that could be used for the surgery. As a result, she was given a referral to a private hospital.
“When the lady and her family members got to the private hospital, they discovered they could not afford the bill. This then led to them taking her to a general hospital.
“As a result of all the stress the woman went through in her pregnant state, she became fatigued and tired, and lost the baby in the process.
“I’ve seen doctors perform vaginal deliveries with lights from their phones because of the power situation here. They have also performed caesarean sections with their phones.”
FATALITIES ARE BEING RECORDED
“As of last Saturday, six deaths had been recorded at the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) due to this same power issue,” a relative of one of the hospital’s patients, who also asked not to be named, told FIJ.
“The hospital keeps admitting new patients without finding a lasting solution to the power issue. Funny enough, most hospital treatments these days actually require adequate power supply.
“I have been struggling to understand how and why UCH’s management has chosen not to do anything to resolve the situation.
“They raise money internally but have refused to use the money to resolve the internal problem they have.
“We used to pay just N1,400 as fees that would cover bed space and other expenses. These expenses were calculated based on the number of days spent at the hospital.
“About 10 days ago, however, the hospital management decided to increase the fee to N4,000 per patient, and it has to be paid weekly. And we even no longer get quality service for the bills we’re being made to pay.
“At least, if they are not paying IBEDC the money they owe, they should be able to buy adequate diesel with the weekly payments we now make.”
IMMINENT STRIKE
While speaking to FIJ, one of UCH’s non-clinical staff, who also asked not to be named, said the hospital’s clinical and non-clinical staff members might embark on a strike if the issue was not resolved soon.
“I can confirm to you that the news is true. The hospital is indeed owing IBEDC hundreds of millions of naira in unpaid electricity bills,” the non-clinical staff member said.
“Most of the major places within the hospital are currently being run with the help of generators. The use of generators has, unfortunately, proved not to be sustainable.
“Diesel is now very expensive, and we now get to run services with little quantities. This means the hospital is, nowadays, almost always without power.
“A strike is imminent. We can no longer pump water; we have also been unable to do many other things since power was disconnected by IBEDC. We, I mean both clinical and non-clinical staff, are planning on embarking on a strike over the issue.
“The strike is likely to happen soon.”
UCH SPOKESPERSON’S RESPONSE
When FIJ first phoned Funmilayo Adetuyibi, UCH’s spokesperson, for comments on the matter on Wednesday, she told this reporter she was already preparing a press release and would send a copy to FIJ once she was done.
