The University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, has admitted that it owes the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company up to N495m.
It is for this reason that the teaching hospital was disconnected from the public power supply.
This was as doctors, nurses, and other staff of the hospital refused to work beyond 4.00 pm unless power was reconnected.
UCH Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Adetuyibi, confirmed on Tuesday that the hospital’s electricity debt was over N400m, contrary to her initial claim.
Meanwhile, workers in the hospital had embarked on what they called down-scaling, working from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm every day until power was restored.
The worker also threatened to go on a seven-day strike if the hospital was not reconnected before Tuesday, April 9.
The Joint Action Committee Chairman, Oludayo Olabampe, told our correspondent exclusively that this would affect patients on admission and that no one would be available to attend to them in the evening.
Olabampe noted that those on admission would need to be discharged, and there would be no new admissions for now.
“From today (Tuesday), we will be ending our services by 4.00 pm. Our services will be only between 8.00 am and 4.00 pm; no call duties, no shift duties, and no 24-hour services until when power is restored. From downscaling, we will go on a seven-day warning strike after a 14-day ultimatum that started counting on March 27.
“This will affect patients on admission because the nurses that attend to patients in the ward will close by 4.00 pm. Imagine leaving the patients to be on their own from 4.00 pm to 8.00 am. So, there won’t be further admission and those on admission now will have to be discharged. Also know that from 4 pm onward, if there are patients in the theatre for surgery and there is the need for blood, if you get to the blood bank, nobody will attend to you after 4 pm.
“If you need one test or the other, you won’t meet anybody in the laboratory. Radiographers will not be available, and even the dietitians who will be in charge of their meals will not be there for dinner. By now, I expect that whoever is having children in the incubator has tried to transfer them to where there is a better power supply,” he said.
