The Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital, UCH, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo is worried about the high cost of providing power supply to health institutions in the country.
Specifically, Otegbayo is lamenting high overhead cost of running a tertiary health hospital as UCH while calling on government to pick bills on power consumption or ask power companies to peg tariffs for essential services.
The UCH has been struggling to pay the bills from Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, which last week disconnected power supply to the premier teaching hospital over an accummulated debt of N500 million.
The issue was resolved over the weekend and IBEDC restored power to the tertiary health facility, but the headache persists.
Professor Otegbayo said the running cost of the hospital monthly is far above the amount received from the Federal Government.
“Today, there is no federal teaching hospital that is not owing power companies. IBEDC has been charging us industrial tariff, in spite of our appeals that we render humanitarian-cum-social services. Besides, power distribution companies increase their tariff as they will, and frequently too.
“As a hospital, we cannot do that. If we are to charge the appropriate fees, an average person will not be able to access our services.
“There is no month that we don’t pay about N45 million to IBEDC. They give us a bill that ranges from N45 to N71 every month, whereas we receive about N14 million from the government as our overhead monthly.
“We supplement the payment for electricity from our internally generated revenue. Also, a substantial part of our indebtedness is for the University of Ibadan’s College of Medicine which is situated within the University College Hospital, Ibadan.
“Apart from what we pay IBEDC, we spend about N20 million on diesel oil monthly aside from the cost of maintaining our generators.
Professor Otegbayo said he has sent an SOS to the Minister of Power as well as that of Health and Social Services in Abuja, with the hope of finding a sustainable way to resolve the embarrassing situation.
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