By Augustine Aminu
The fuel crisis which has lingered in the country is taking its toll on the health sector as many hospitals now operate skeletally due to high cost of diesel to power their heavy duty generators.
The situation is further worsened by the epileptic nature of power supply in the country which hospitals can not rely on to carry out certain emergencies such as surgeries, child delivery etc.
Consequently, hospitals which managed to remain in business under the current situation have been forced to hike the fees for their services just to meet up while patients and their family bear the brunt.
In Kano, our correspondent observed that the Management of the Popular Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), has jerked up the cost of services in order to meet up with “the economic realities” in the country.
The case is similar to what is obtainable at majority of private hospitals in the state as the cost of services has continued to hit the roof owing to the high cost of diesel.
Dr Ayuba Rabiu, a consultant gynaecologist Prime Alliance Multi-care Specialist Hospital, Kano who spoke on behalf of the CMD, Nasir Ahmad Ishaq, revealed that their facility used to spend N1.6million every month on diesel, but now, with the scarcity and high cost of the product, they spend N2.6m every month.
“We just held a meeting on this issue and invited two companies that are installing inverters because we can’t continue like this. We are trying to go on inverters as an alternative.
“From N1.6m to N2.6m, this month, we spent close to N3m on diesel. We had never increased our price of rooms and other services, but this month, we couldn’t hold unto that. A room of N13,500 is now N15,000, just to compensate the expenses on diesel.
Adeniji Kazeem, a 45-year-old father of a patient, Olakunle Kazeem admitted recently at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Oyo State capital said he had to sell his Toyota Camry car to care for his three-year-old boy, who has been admitted in the hospital since February this year as the hospital bills continue to rise due to the high cost of diesel.
Stakeholders in the health sector say there is for urgent intervention from the government to bring the situation under control.