SERAP urged President Buhari to immediately instruct the Minister of Health to stop the UCH from implementing the order.
A civil rights organisation, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to sue President Muhammadu Buhari if the first university teaching hospital in Nigeria, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, implements the N1,000 electricity bill per day for every patient in the hospital.
The hospital through a circular mandated heads of units to implement the N1,000 electricity bill for every patient, citing inflation and fuel scarcity as reasons for introducing the bill.
Reacting to the order, SERAP urged President Buhari to immediately instruct the Minister of Health to stop the UCH from implementing the order.
The group threatened to file a suit against Mr. President should the hospital go ahead and charge patients the electricity bill.
SERAP, which made this known on its Twitter page, @SERAPNigeria said, “We urge President Buhari to immediately instruct the Minister of Health to stop the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, from asking every patient in the hospital to pay N1,000.00 electricity bill per day.
“We'll see in court if UCH imposes the bill.”
In an internal memo, the hospital management claimed the new charge on patients was introduced because of the hikes in electricity tariff and cost of diesel.
The memo titled, ‘Approval for the recommendation to add utility fee to service charged patients in the hospital’ was signed by the UCH administrator, Wole Oyeyemi, on behalf of the Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee and Chief Medical Director.
According to the memo, the hospital management directed the immediate implementation of the rule requiring the payment of the N1,000 electricity charge by each patient.
The memo quoted by the Nigerian Tribune read, “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, the 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 N1,000 daily by every patient accessing care in the hospital. You are requested to kindly implement approval with immediate effect.”
Nigeria's energy generation and supply have been abysmally below the capacity required for its 200 million population, meaning many citizens and businesses rely on generators to power homes and facilities respectively.
For instance, the national power grid has collapsed a number of times in 2022 alone, amid the rising cost of diesel and Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, needed to power generators.