President Bola Tinubu has made commitments to resolve the ongoing power crisis in Nigerian hospitals. The pledge was made at a national stakeholders’ dialogue held in Abuja, and the president stated,” If we do not put an end to this situation, patients’ lives are at stake.”
He stated that unreliable electricity in operating theatres, maternity wards and emergency rooms is a “danger to patients”, it disrupts the flow, it damages equipment and it costs lives. He said that these failures are unacceptable and therefore must stop.
The dialogue was called by both the Ministries of health and power, to discuss how they would align strategies for reliable power to health institutions. During the dialogue he explained that electricity is the foundation of modern healthcare and highlights, “when there is quality service there is trust in a public hospital.
Quality builds trust.” He advocated for renewable sustainable energy solutions, such as off-grid solar and hybrid systems, and stated that they would work better with greater Earth-private sector collaboration to ensure sustainability.
“Nigeria is open for investment in renewable energy for healthcare” he said, along with an appeal for investors to support the government actions. He also asked for long-term energy strategies and solutions from hospitals rather than one-off solutions.
The president emphasized the importance of requesting actionable plans to follow the meeting rather than an emotion-based report. The time for hospitals to deal with consistent power outages, lack of face-value support from supporting agencies, and malfunctioning equipment must come to an end, he reiterated.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Iziaq Salako, supported the Presidents comments. He said that many hospitals are spending up to half of their annual budgets just on fuel to run generators, and some primary health care centres have no electricity.
The president stated that his administration would fully support hospitals and reliable solutions to ensure that healthcare everywhere is free of these issues. “Patient safety must be at the top of mind,” he said, and that no Nigerian should die because the lights went out during their treatment or surgery.
The president’s comments have been significantly welcomed as a strong commitment to addressing the challenges of a single biggest problem that exists for Nigeria’s health sector.
There is now significant pressure on his administration to put their words into action over the next few months.
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