Nigerian Hospital Allegedly Imposes N1000 Per Day Electricity Bill On Paitents

The management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, has allegedly imposed an extra N1000 daily electricity charge on patients admitted in the hospital.

The hospital announced the development via a circular obtained by Premium Times.

According to the hospital, the new fee was due to the increment in electricity bill and diesel.

The circular reads in part, “Following the recurring power outage in the hospital, high cost of electricity tariff and inflation in the price of diesel which have impeded stable power supply, management has decided to consider measures that can help to facilitate flawless service delivery in the hospital.

“To this end, I write to convey the management’s approval for the mandatory payment of utility fee of ₦1,000.00 (one thousand naira only) daily by every patient accessing care in this hospital.

“You are requested to kindly implement the approval with immediate effect.”

An anonymous source that works in the hospital told the publication that the hospital receives between N50 and N60 million electricity bill every month hence the reason for the N1000 fee.

He said: “You are aware that diesel is very costly, as we have to rely on public power supply and then the bill by our electricity distributor- IBDC, is also now very high.”

“We receive between N50 and N60 million naira every month here and this is not a corporate organisation, we are serving humanity. So because we cannot maintain such a bill, we had to look for ways of sustainability,” the source said.

“The more power we have, the higher the bill,” the official added, noting that oftentimes the hospital experiences a recurring power outage, and would be forced to run power generating sets for hours.”