Power Outage: Nigeria teaching hospital uses 75 generators

The University College Hospital, Ibadan, currently uses 75 generators to carry out its wide range of medical services, the hospital management has said.

The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Jesse Otegbayo, said this on Monday at an event to mark his first anniversary in office, the Punch Newspaper reported.

He said the efficiency of the hospital in areas of medical research, training and treatment were challenged by erratic power supply.

Mr Otegbayo said power supply was the greatest challenge confronting the medical institution.

“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.

“On average, we generate N200m monthly. That should not be looked at in isolation. You will ask how much we spend 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.

“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,” he said.

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Mr Otegbayo noted that the intention of the management is to provide equipment for the diagnosis of endemic diseases in Nigeria.

“Our intention is to provide equipment for the diagnosis of diseases that are endemic in Nigeria and to bring back our cardiac program, which has been in lieu for quite a while.

“We also intend to ensure that the kidney transplant that was done last week becomes sustainable,” he said.

Toyin Okeowo, who spoke on behalf of the board of trustees of the hospital, recalled that 20 years ago, UCH was the fourth best hospital in the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries.