High electricity tariff in hospitals: Doctors call for reversal to avert deaths

BY ADA DIKE

The recent hike in electricity tariff has so much affected activities in hospitals in the country, to the extent that Nigerians have asked for its downward review to avert disaster.

Recall that the Guild of Medical Directors of Nigeria had earlier complained that the hike in electricity tariff is choking private hospitals which delivers 70 percent of healthcare works, to the extent that, about eight hospitals have recently folded up in Maiduguri, Borno State.

The Guild stated this during their 2024 National Annual General Meeting held in Lagos this year.

The medical directors further revealed that apart from hike in electricity tariff, the hospital owners identified multiple taxations, high cost of importation of medical equipment, brain drain and hike in drug prices as other factors crippling the operations of private hospitals in the country.

They called on the government to intervene promptly to stop other hospitals from folding up

Speaking on how high cost of electricity is affecting many hospitals in Nigeria, the President of Doctors Save a Life Foundation, Dr. Richard Okoye, said Band A tariff may turn Nigeria hospitals into morgues.

Okoye stated in a video chat he posted online. He revealed that Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution company (PHED) sent him a letter stating what they referred as Band A, saying that their monthly power bill would be N25,300,000.00 (Twenty five million, three hundred thousand naira) every month.

He emphasized that hospitals are not business centres. “Hospitals are rendering essential services to the society.

“We are already struggling with the doctors leaving the country. Majority of healthcare systems are struggling as it were. If nothing is done urgently to revisit that decision, Band A epidermics will turn hospitals into morgues. The epidermics, unfortunately, it would have been preventable,” Okoye warned.

He stressed that power is the life of healthcare delivery, adding that when there’s light in a hospital, patients have a sense of hope again.

In continuing, he disclosed that majority of emergency and anaesthetic drugs maintained their efficacy with light.

Already, a report stated that about 20 percent of hospitals are already shutting down. This again, to drain the hospital more, it will be worse,” he said

Furthermore, Okoye said most times, a diabetic patient will have an insulin, you won’t see any effect, probably, the protein content of it has already been de-nurtured because there’s no power to preserve them.

“I witnessed something in my medical engagement where an elderly woman was to be operated, the anaesthesia was given. The anaesthetist asked the woman, “how are you?” She said: “I am fine. He increased the dose to see if the woman would be able to sleep. “Mama, how are you?” She answered: “I am fine.” Everyone looked at one another. If to say the woman was alcoholic, it would have been a different issue. The anaesthetist increased the dosage and asked her again, “Mama, how are you?” She asked: “Is there any problem?”

“Everybody asked Mama to get down. After evaluation, it was discovered that the drug was original, but it was not well preserved.

“That means that those who are diabetic in Nigeria currently should brace up because majority of them that are insulin dependent will see no way to buy the drug, they have to travel miles, maybe, to get a hospital that may have a steady light to be sure of what they are taking. It’s going to be a disaster with this band A,” he reiterated.

In continuing, Okoye revealed that teaching hospitals and other medical centres used to enjoy some relative form of light because, perhaps, they are given to pay like other people. “They are not downgrading them to Band B so that they share the energy to people they feel can pay to the detriment to the health of the people.”

He averred that: “Power is what determines whether a surgical operation would be successful or not. It determines before and after, the outcome of any surgery. If the instruments are not properly sterilized, it is signing a death sentence to people. If nothing is done to stop this development right now, the society should brace up for infections that will be acquired from the hospitals. The type that will come up will be the one that is resistant to all antibiotics we know.

“Even when we start getting it right, the worse has already happened, if something is not done right now to stop the already possible mutation of those organisms by the reason of being allowed in an environment of no power.

“My heart rent when a teaching hospital could pack their own instruments to go and sterilize in another hospital because they don’t have light.

“What is the level of consultation? If you work at something from economic indices by individual or a group of people to override health of the people of this country? Okoye queried.

He maintained that: “Most times, we look at our little privileges in life be it in government or position of financial improvement. The day of emergency will come, you don’t know where you will be. It is a stone thrown into the market. It is going to hit so hard. It’s something preventable as it is now,” he added

In another development, a 28-year-old woman working as a nurse in a hospital in Ogba, Lagos, complained to Saturday Times how cost of electricity and medicals made her husband to pay the sum of N600,000.00 for her caecerean operation in a private hospital at Ayobo, Lagos.

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According to her, the hospital’s management mentioned the huge amount they spend in powering light as one of the reasons bills have gone up in hospitals in Nigeria, emphassing that the hospital charged lower compared to the amount many hospitals in Nigeria charge presently.

Also, a worried citizen, Mr. Dester Okeke, has said that lack of electricity in hospitals during emergencies has killed many babies and accident victims.

“Even if you’re a millionaire or a billionaire, lack of quality healthcare can kill you. They can rush you to the hospital and there won’t be oxygen or electricity for you. With all your money, you will be gone,” Okeke lamented.

Okeke also mentioned bad roads, generator explosion, high cost of living and so on as other causes of untimely deaths in Nigeria.

QUOTE

Power is what determines whether a surgical operation would be successful or not. It determines before and after, the outcome of any surgery. If the instruments are not properly sterilized, it is signing a death sentence to people.