The University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, has reversed its earlier claim that it doesn’t owe the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company as claimed.
The medical institution says it owes the electricity distribution company up to ₦495m, for which reason it was disconnected from public power supply.
Due to that, doctors, nurses, and other staff of the hospital have refused to work beyond 4.00 pm unless power is reconnected.
On its own part, Ibadan DisCo said it disconnected the hospital after failed attempts to dialogue with the hospital’s management regarding the ₦495m debt, which it said had raged on for over six years.
Last week, UCH through Mrs Funmilayo Adetuyibi, the PRO denied owing ₦495m, saying the current UCH administration, led by Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, assumed office on March 1, 2019, and inherited over ₦27m as of February 27, 2019.
Retracting her claim after being contacted by IBEDC through its spokesperson, Busolami Tunwase, Funmilayo Adetuyibi said, “The truth of the matter is that we are owing IBEDC and we need help. Help is the main thing. We are soliciting for funds; help is what we need.
“The amount is ₦495m; leave it at ₦495m. There was an error while we were sending the rejoinder, which I rectified and sent the corrected version. So, let’s leave all these and let’s look for help.
“That’s what we actually need. It’s the help that we need.”
As stated earlier, workers in the hospital had embarked on working from 8.00am to 4.00pm every day until power was restored while threatening to go on a seven-day strike if the hospital was not reconnected before Tuesday, April 9.
Speaking, the Chairman of the Joint Action Committee, Oludayo Olabampe, said, “From today (Tuesday), we will be ending our services by 4.00pm. Our services will be only between 8.00am and 4.00pm; 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 4.00pm. Imagine leaving the patients to be on their own from 4.00pm till 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 upward, 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.
Also, he corroborated Funmilayo Adetuyibi’s claim soliciting for help, he said “UCH does not have the money to pay the debt”.
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