The Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Abeokuta, Ogun State, is weighed down by its monthly running cost of providing alternative power source for smooth operations.
Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof. Adewale Musa-Olomu said the facility spends an average of N44 million per month on diesel to power its generating sets. He said this was weighing heavily on the hospital, and appealed to the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on the nation’s tertiary health care institutions to enable them meet their mandate to the people.
Prof. Musa-Olomu, a specialist in goiter surgery, spoke during a medical outreach organised by the hospital for journalists. The one day free medical service held at the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat at Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta. It featured health talk, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, hypertension tests, among others, and free medicines.
The CMD noted that the government is doing much to provide qualitative healthcare to Nigerians, but said it should also help cushion the weight of rising cost of alternative power ‘lest the public find it difficult to access treatment because of cost’.
According to him, the cost of diesel which rose from N600 to N730 per litre recently was threatening the hospital’s survival.
He added: “Government needs to declare a state-of-emergency on energy in tertiary institutions if they want us to carry on, it is just very necessary. In FMC Abeokuta, we use N5 million worth of diesel every two weeks, amounting to N10 million in a month. But suddenly the thing diesel jumped to N22 million (every two weeks), and now it is N44 million in a month. So, how do we cope?
“Everybody knows the state of diesel, diesel is what we all use to power our generators and if as a medical centre we consume something in the worth of N10 million, but suddenly jumped to N44 million, how dowe cope?
“But, if the Federal government comes to our aid by declaring a state-of-emergency in the energy sector, and probably they give us solar panels of about 1,000MW as they have given some other tertiary institutions, it will help us a lot, charges on patients will reduce and people will be ready to access health care.”
Musa-Olomu said the significance and contributions of journalists to nation-building and development informed the decision to bring the medical outreach to them.
He urged the journalists to embrace healthy living by staying away from alcohol, smoking, carbonated drinks and other junk foods, but cultivate the habit of drinking enough water.