UCH will now charge all patients a N1,000 electricity fee to help offset high diesel costs

PATIENTS at Nigeria's first teaching hospital the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan will now have to pay a N1,000 electricity charge daily due to high cost of power tariffs and diesel in the country. 

Established by an August 1952 Act of Parliament in response to the need for the training of medical personnel, UCH was Nigeria's flagship hospital at independence. Still at the vanguard of medical developments, in May 2006, a surgical team successfully performed open-heart surgery on three paediatric patients at UCH, representing an important landmark in Nigerian medicine.

Now, however, the hospital appears to have fallen victim to Nigeria's chronic power crisis as the nation only generates 7,000MW of electricity, of which it can only distribute 4,000MW. This is in comparison to the 59,063MW generated in Egypt and the 58,095MW generated in South Africa.

Due to the inadequate power supply, everyone in Nigeria now uses private generators, which apart from being an environmental hazard, has made electricity very expensive. Nigeria is currently the world's biggest importer of small and medium generators and is the world's second biggest importer of large generators.

Pointing out that the charges had come necessary due to the prevailing economic conditions, the UCH management sent an internal memo to all its departments titled Approval for the Recommendation to Add Utility Fee to Service Charged Patients in the Hospital. Signed by the UCH administrator, Wole Oyeyemi, on behalf of the chairman of the medical advisory committee and chief medical director, it recommended a N1,000 electricity charge to be levied on patients in the hospital. 

“Following the recurring power outage in the hospital, high cost of electricity tariff and inflation in the price of diesel which have impeded stable power supply, the management has decided to consider measures that can help to facilitate flawless service delivery in the hospital. To this end, I write to convey the management’s approval for the mandatory payment of utility fee of N1,000 daily by every patient accessing care in the hospital. You are requested to kindly implement approval with immediate effect,” the memo read.