The management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, and the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) have been trading words over the disconnection of power supply to the tertiary health institution.

IBEDC had disconnected the power supply to UCH over what it called technical faults and indebtedness.

The chief medical director (CMD) of UCH, Jesse Otegbayo, in his reaction to the development, said that IBEDC should stop giving the hospital industrial bills.

Mr Otegbayo told journalists on Friday in Ibadan that part of the problems the hospital had with IBEDC was that it was giving the hospital industrial tariffs.

“The company should realise that we are rendering social services. Lots of people come here for treatment without having any money.

“So these are the things IBEDC should consider and not treat us as if we are a manufacturing company,” he said.

The chief medical director decried a situation where IBEDC increased its tariffs on the hospital from time to time without considering its status as a social service provider.

“We are owing about four hundred and seventy something million, but about N200 million of it is owed by College Of Medicine, not UCH.

“But because UI’s College of Medicine is within UCH, they lumped us together, whereas we are separate agencies. While the college belongs to the Federal Ministry of Education, UCH belongs to the Federal Ministry of Health.

“We pay between N30 million and N45 million every month as electricity bills, but IBEDC gives us bills ranging from N45 million to N71 million.

“Whereas, we only receive N14 million for overhead per month from the government, we supplement it with our internally-general revenue (IGR),” he said.

Mr Otegbayo said that when he came on board as CMD in 2019, he met a debt of N300 million owed IBEDC, adding that efforts had since been made to pay.

According to him, efforts have also been made to install solar energy in critical areas, such as clinics, wards and other places.

Mr Otegbayo appealed to government, non-governmental organisations and kind-hearted Nigerians to come to the hospital’s aid.

However, IBEDC, in its reaction, said UCH owed it over N400 million, with the debt spanning over six years.

A spokesperson for IBEDC, Busolami Tunwase, told journalists that IBEDC had made several efforts to get the money through several letters and meetings.

“If we don’t get in our outstanding debts, there is no way we can meet up with our own obligations, let alone serve the people better,” she said.

Ms Tunwase said the disconnection was not applicable to UCH but to other customers with outstanding also.

“We need to get our money back in order to continue to be operational and survive as an entity,” she said.

The spokesperson, however, said that the issue of outstanding merely coincided with a technical fault that was reported around the hospital.

“But, the management of IBEDC and UCH need to sort out how about N500 million debt will be paid.

“We are not denying the fact that there was a fault, but we need to get them to sit down with us and find a way to pay the money,” she said.

(NAN)