•Patients waiting to be attended to at the Pediatric Ward of Abaji General Hospital
Poor power supply to health facilities across the country is subjecting patients and their families to untold hardship, worsening health conditions, and resulting in loss of lives, investigations have shown.
The power crisis is halting healthcare deliveries, especially surgeries and antenatal services, reports Daily Trust.
Patients told our correspondent that they had their tests and treatments, including surgeries, delayed and postponed owing to power outage in hospitals.
This is even as health facilities, including tertiary hospitals, are battling huge electricity debts; with their managements, saying that despite paying those bills, they still have to source for funds to provide alternative power.
The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had, in February, hinted at a fresh electricity tariff hike, saying the government could not sustain the electricity subsidy.
‘Power outage caused my wife’s death during fibroid surgery’
Recently, one Umar B. Shehu, in a Facebook post, wrote that due to power outage, his wife, Ummi Yusuf Makusidi, died during a fibroid surgery at the Jummai Babangida Maternal and Neonatal General Hospital, Minna, Niger State.
He said, “Thirty-five minutes into my wife’s operation, NEPA took light, and there was no fuel in the theater generator at the Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital,” Shehu wrote.
“Minutes later, they brought the fuel. After pouring it into the generator, it refused to start. They had to look for a mechanic. My wife was still inside the theatre.
“One of the nurses told me not to worry, that the operation had continued even without electricity. They had an alternative —torchlight — as usual.
“The mechanic arrived, but there were things he had to go and buy at the Ogbomosho area in Minna. My wife was still inside the theater.
“An hour later, power was restored, and the mechanic was still working on the generator. So the operation continued. A procedure that wasn’t supposed to last 90 minutes ended up taking from 4pm to 7pm.”
When our correspondent visited the hospital on Saturday around 5pm, there was no electricity in any section. Patients’ relatives said there had been no power for three days and that doctors referred women in labour, especially those requiring caesarean sections, to private hospitals.
15 hours awaiting surgery
Ali Isah, who said his daughter spent 15 hours awaiting surgery, narrated: “My daughter was brought here around 3am for delivery. Nurses had told us that caesarean section would be carried out, but till 5 pm, it was not done. We paid N40,000 for the caesarean section. My brother had suggested that we go to a private hospital, but we had paid at the Jummai Babangida Maternal and Neonatal Hospital.”
A relation of another patient at the hospital said: “A baby died in a woman’s womb on Friday after waiting for hours without being operated on. The reason they had was lack of electricity and water. The husband even volunteered to buy water but they said there was no power. Before the woman could be referred to MI Wushishi for caesarean section, the baby was dead. It is three days now and there is no light in this hospital.”
‘Patients use rechargeable fans at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital’
A patient at the male ward of the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Kano, who simply gave his name as Malam Umar, said “Patients use rechargeable fans because of the heat when electricity supply is disrupted.
“No solar system is provided here, therefore, it takes some time before supply is restored or generator is turned on.”
Our correspondent observed that the accidents and emergency unit of the hospital has solar power.
Why we increased service charges by 100% – AKTH
According to the chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Prof. Muhammad Abba Suwaid, who spoke on behalf of the Chief Medical Director, Prof. Abdurrahman Abba Sheshe, the hospital consumes electricity of between N80 million and N100 million monthly, but can only settle 30% of the total amount monthly, thereby accumulating a total debt of N700 million in electricity bills.
“And this has seriously affected patients care as the hospital management has to increase the charges for services by 100% in order to meet up with the bill, which is also not possible.
“The management, therefore, is planning to install solar panels in some critical areas of the hospital out of its 2025 budget, which include Intensive Care Units (ICU), theatre and some wards”.
Niger govt blames faulty transformer
When contacted, the Niger State Commissioner for Secondary and Tertiary Health, Bello Tukur, denied that operations at the hospital were affected by poor power supply.
“That’s not true. The transformer developed a fault and AEDC was called to come and check. They assessed the transformer and said that the Transmission Company of Nigeria needed to come and assess the transmission line. We paid the required fees and they are currently working on it.
“The critical sections of the hospital like the neonatal unit, labour room, and theater have alternative power supply. The bigger generator that can take the entire hospital cannot be put on because it has to pass through the transmission line, which is faulty. The TCN and AEDC staff are currently working to repair the line and restore power to the hospital,” he said.
Also Ladi Adukwu whose Uncle was rushed to a public tertiary hospital last year said doctors asked for ultrasound and X-ray tests for her uncle on a Saturday but that the staff in the unit told them there was no light and they had to wait for it to be done on Monday morning.
Her uncle, however, died the next day, Sunday.
She said, “ If the test was done that day maybe they would have seen what was wrong with him and treated him to prevent his death.”
Patients and their relations at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), who spoke to our correspondent, said the facility only gets electricity at night.
A man, whose mother had been admitted for two weeks, said, “We bought an air bed and a fan but couldn’t use them. They only put on the light at night. I don’t know if it’s NEPA or generator.”
Another patient’s relative said, “Since I’ve been coming here, I haven’t seen NEPA light. It’s just generator here.”
The Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Professor Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said the hospital currently runs a combined power system of grid electricity, generators and solar inverters following the discontinuation of its connection to the state’s Independent Power Project (IPP).
He said LASUTH had operated under the Lagos State Government’s IPP arrangement for about eight years before it was terminated roughly six months ago. The facility has since returned to the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC).
He noted that LASUTH is under the Band A tariff category, adding that due to the cost, the hospital only uses power from IKEDC for 16 hours each day and relies on generators for the remaining hours.
Describing the tariff as outrageous, he said: “We ration the power supply from IKEDC to 16 hours and use our generator to compensate for the remaining eight hours.
“We make sure all critical areas have power all the time because we are complemented with solar inverters.
“When we are rationing, it mainly affects outpatient clinics and some wards. Some of the wards have solar, but not all. We try to ensure we don’t have outages for more than two or three hours in the wards.”
Yesterday, one Muhammad called on the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Pate, to salvage the situation of epileptic power supply at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja.
Muhammad, who wrote on his X (formerly Twitter) account, said after hours of waiting, patients were told that the x-ray machine could not work with a generator.
He wrote, “Dear sir, please help intervene. We have been at UATH Gwagwalada since morning for x-ray. The hospital has been running on generator since morning; after waiting for three hours, we are told that the x-ray machine cannot work on generator that we have to wait until AEDC restores electricity.”
Also, Grace Adukwu, whose uncle was admitted at the National Hospital Abuja, said doctors prescribed ultrasound for her uncle on a Saturday but that the family was told there was no electricity and had to wait till Monday.
Constant power supply key to quality health service delivery – Expert
Co-convener, Coalition on Sustainable Healthcare Electrification in Nigeria, Tunde Salman, said regular and reliable provision of electricity to healthcare facilities is important for their effective operation.
He said Nigeria’s power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructures are not commensurate with the energy demands of the population, including reliable electricity for healthcare facilities.
He said solar systems have several advantages; they provide flexibility to design that can cater to the power load of a health centre, reliability of performance, and critical loads.
He said: “Accelerating deployment of renewable energy to health centres is a need of the hours. Moreover, powering health systems through renewable energy such as solar could address energy and health concerns simultaneously.”
He called on government at all levels to prioritise policy action on renewable energy for health facilities including primary health care centres to enable them work 24-7.
He said the use of solar energy for powering health facilities has a positive impact.
FG’s efforts
The federal government, at the end of March, inaugurated an implementation committee for a national stakeholders’ dialogue on power in the health sector, aimed at achieving sustainable electrification of public healthcare facilities.
Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, said the primary objective of the national dialogue is to, amongst others, enhance public-private partnerships to ensure a steady electricity supply to public health institutions.
He said it would also identify alternative and sustainable solutions by exploring renewable energy options, backup power systems, and energy-efficient solutions to enhance power reliability in tertiary and other health facilities across the country.
He said, “It is obvious that the current efforts are neither integrated nor guided by any holistic framework, operational guideline, or overarching policy.
“We can no longer afford business as usual in the face of mounting energy bills of our hospitals. The time has come for all hands to be on deck to relieve our hospitals of the burden of prohibitive costs of power supply which gulps hundreds of millions of naira”.
Kingsley Okotie, spokesman of Ikeja Electric, said there’s no preferential treatment of any organisation or institution, saying organisations get supply based on their band classification and what they pay for.
“We don’t have any special package for health care officials in Lagos for now. Every individual or institution that purchases electricity from us gets it according the band they subscribed for,” he said.
On his part, the Head of Corporate Communications at the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO) Sani Bala said the billing is a function of supply and consumption, especially those in Band A. He added that he would make further enquiries and revert but was yet to do so at press time.
Efforts to speak with the Head of Marketing and Communications at the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Adefisayo Akinsanya, were not successful as she did not pick calls put through to her.
