The management of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), Ondo, has denied extorting patients to pay for power generation to carry out its operations.
This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Oluwole Ige, the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, on Thursday in Ondo.
“The purported story of patients being extorted to get diesel before treatment or requested to buy diesel for the hospital is completely false.
“No patient was asked to get diesel.
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“We had power outage yesterday between the hours of 6.00 a.m. and 6.00 p.m. there about. That patients were asked to buy diesel is not correct.
“We have not had power supply from the main electricity supply for over a week,” he said.
Ige said that the hospital’s diesel reserve was supposed to last till Friday but got exhausted unexpectedly by 6.00 a.m. on Wednesday because of continuous usage and difficulty in restocking occasioned from the fuel scarcity.
“It’s a one off occurrence. You will agree with me that it’s an unusual time. The process of getting supplies is currently disrupted.
“If it was not that power was constant in the hospital, power outage for a period within a day would not have been an issue.
“As I speak, the main electricity supply to the hospital has not even come up for one second over the last one week,’’ Ige said.
He lamented that the it was difficult powering the plant non-stop, particularly in this period of petrol scarcity and increased cost of products, moreso when the cost could not be transmitted to patients. (NAN)
