The University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, has reacted to an online report on total blackout and blood bank downward trend by some online news outlets, saying there is no such report recorded in the hospital.
Speaking with journalists, on Tuesday, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee and Director of Clinical Services, Dr. Abiodun Moshood Adeoye, said there is no record of any negative blood transfusion or reaction as reported.
He urged journalists to always approach the hospital to seek clarification on issues, adding that the hospital will be glad to address any request seeking clarification or reaction.
His words: “Concerning the report, I can tell you that we are surprised because as the Director, Clinical Services, I am not aware of such. Immediately I heard about the report, what I did was to call the Head of Department and she confirmed there was no such issue. We called the Engineering Department as well to confirm but they said they were also surprised that something like that was reported.
“We called our assistants and others who worked with us and they told us it was not true. We all found out that the information could not be true. We don’t know maybe some certain people are not happy with the progress we are making, though we cannot be perfect hundred per cent.
“So, we would have loved a situation where if the reporter had some issues and wanted clarifications, he or she should have approached us to ask questions, and we would have been very glad to address whatever the case may be, but this caught us by surprise. We are not aware of such and the report is not correct.
“As far as I am concerned as Director, Clinical Services, I don’t have any report on any blood transfusion we had that is viewed as bad transfusion. If the person can come up with more specific evidence on what he has seen, we can take it up from there. But as far as we are concerned, there is no such report. We have gone round and still doing our investigation, and if there is any report of such, I should have the report.”
While speaking on electricity supply at the hospital, Dr Adeoye said despite the very low supply these days, the hospital has relied on generating set to complement the supply.
He said that the hospital has a lot of generating sets but because of cost implication, the hospital is making use of over 40 generating set. He added that the service areas like Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Accident and Emergency and others are being run on inverters.
Adeoye said the Blood bank, which the report said is experiencing downward trend, has two functioning generating sets, adding that it is the next on the line to get inverters.
He concluded that the hospital is also looking at generating power through the Independent Power Project (IPP) adding that power outage will soon become a thing of the past in the hospital.
He called on well-to-do Nigerians who can assist the hospital to come forward like some philanthropists have done in the past.
“Yes, I want to commend the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, which has prioritised power supply for the UCH. We have up to 20 hours per day and we complement with our generators. But when they have problem, we rely solely on our generators. In all our service areas including Intensive Care Unit ICU, Accident and Emergency and others, we run them on inverters. We have some of our machines that are on UPS that can run for many hours when there is power outage. We have a lot of generators but because of the cost implication, we only make use of over 40, which are currently running as we speak.
“We use to make sure that we rationalise our service areas are not affected when there is power outage. We deprive some offices because of the comfort of ourselves or that of the Chief Executives as we can bare it. But our priority is the patients in the hospital.
“Hardly will we have this kind of crisis if not about three weeks ago that there was a major problem with the Transmission Company of Nigeria, and they are working on it. So, as we are, we are running generator.
“Specifically, for the Blood Bank, a philanthropist donated a new generating set to the unit October, 2022 but we have a permanent solution we are looking at. We want to increase the presence of inverters in all these service areas and the Blood Bank is among. As a matter of fact the Blood Bank is the next on the line to get these inverters. We are also looking at the Independent Power Project IPP. We have invited some companies and interviewed them. I believe they will come up very soon and all these issues of power outage will become a thing of the past in UCH.”
Our correspondent was conducted round the Blood Bank building of the hospital including the Blood component room, laboratories and the power house where the generators are installed.
