Ibadan’s University College Hospital denies owing the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company N495 million, despite what has been implied.
This was said in a statement released by UCH’s public relations officer, Mrs. Funmilayo Adetuyibi, to the News Agency of Nigeria in Ibadan on Wednesday.
According to NAN, IBEDC cut off UCH’s power supply because of what it claimed were unpaid bills of N495 million, leaving the institution without light.
However, Adetuyibi refuted the claim that the hospital had racked up N495 million in debt during the previous three years.
She stated that as of February 27, 2019, the current UCH administration, headed by Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, had inherited approximately N27 million. Since then, it has made sure that IBEDC bills are paid on a regular basis.
She also claims that the UCH management has been paying off the backlog of invoices that were left over from earlier administrations.
The IBEDC management and this management have met multiple times.
“In addition, a payment schedule for clearing the outstanding debt backlog has been sent to the IBEDC regional head and consultant.
IBEDC declined this payment plan. They demanded that the N250 million initial payment be made in three months.
“The motto of this management is ‘staff welfare and patient comfort.” Essentially, the hospital’s water and power supplies are vital to our daily operations.
The hospital administration has taken great care to ensure that our teeming patients have access to quality medical care at all times, she noted, “even though we can say that we have outstanding bills to settle with the IBEDC.”
Adetuyibi refuted the notion that the hospital often spent N160 million a month on diesel, stating that the monthly expenditure was actually closer to N15–N17 million.
She said that the hospital’s internal audit department’s records showed that IBEDC had never provided UCH with a 24-hour power supply.
“There is absolutely no mention of the story of patients’ relatives purchasing sachet water. We use the generator to pump water even though the hospital’s water supply is not ideal because of the power outage.
There are just 45 generators in the facility. Some of these 45 generators need to be serviced, and some need to be replaced, the speaker stated.
Adetuyibi went on to say that the management of the hospital had also installed solar inverters in few locations, such as the medical microbiology department, the outpatient clinics, the accident and emergency department, the endoscopy suites, the ECG suites, the staff clinic, and the Owena dialysis ward.
The old bill that this administration inherited is the source of our dispute with IBEDC, as previously mentioned. “We paid N50 million in January 2024, N55 million in February 2024, and N45 million in March 2024,” she said.
The public relations representative continued, saying that although UCH had been paying the previous costs in addition to the current ones, IBEDC was demanding that the hospital pay the bills it had inherited.
She stated that because the management provides social services, the management has made multiple appeals to the power distribution firm to refrain from charging UCH at commercial prices. However, the firm has not heeded our petitions.
“However, the hospital has established an energy committee to lessen the impact of power outages.”The committee is in charge of organizing fundraisers to cover the cost of electricity and to supply solar energy to the hospital’s other service areas.
In addition, the energy committee is tasked with resolving the energy issue in the short- and long-term.
“We implore kind-hearted people, business associations, and the global community at large to assist the medical facility.
“UCH is a national heritage; it is our collective legacy, and it is our collective responsibility to preserve it,” Adetuyibi declared.
