75 generators!

Hardball

IT would have been hard to believe the information if it hadn’t come from the horse’s mouth. On March 2, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, Prof. Jesse Abiodun Otegbayo, spoke at an event to mark his first anniversary in office.

Otegbayo said: “I would say that the three major challenges we are facing at UCH currently are power, power and light.

“It may interest you to note that we have almost 75 generators in different locations within the premises.”

It is bad enough that the hospital depends on generators to function. It is worse that the hospital needs such a number of generators to function.

“On average, we generate N200m monthly,” the CMD was quoted as saying. “That should not be looked at in isolation. You will ask how much we spend also on diesel, buying and repairing generators and meeting other needs. I want to say this amount is still not enough. Fortunately, we have people of goodwill who make donations to supplement what we are generating.”

If the hospital generates such a sum monthly, Hardball wonders how much it spends on its “almost 75 generators”. Thanks to public-spirited donors who augment the hospital’s revenue, but it isn’t supposed to depend on such donations to function.

The hospital’s situation is alarming. Otegbayo didn’t need to explain that power and water are necessities in a hospital environment.  But his explanation may well have been necessary to shame the authorities expected to provide power and water. Indeed, the authorities should be ashamed of their failure to provide power and water.

Otegbayo lamented:  “The topmost challenge, for us, is power. This is a hospital environment; you cannot over-emphasise the need for regular power supply. Imagine if a patient is being operated and the power goes off. A lot of things can go wrong. If you ask me, power is number one. Then, number two is power and number three is light. Number four will now be water.”

Dr Toyin Okeowo, who spoke on behalf of the board of trustees of the hospital, recalled that there was a time UCH was rated as the fourth best hospital in the Commonwealth. That was a long time ago.

Today, UCH is a shadow of its former self.  No power, no water, can’t make UCH rank among the best, among other things.  Those responsible for this decline should hang their heads in shame.