Power outage must not turn our hospitals to graveyards

The recent death of one Mrs Ramatu Makusidi at the Jummai Babangida Aliyu Neonatal and Maternal Hospital in Minna, Niger State has brought to the fore the dire situation in our hospitals and the reality of our failing healthcare services. The deceased’s husband, Umar B. Shehu, in a Facebook post, wrote that due to power […]

The recent death of one Mrs Ramatu Makusidi at the Jummai Babangida Aliyu Neonatal and Maternal Hospital in Minna, Niger State has brought to the fore the dire situation in our hospitals and the reality of our failing healthcare services.

The deceased’s husband, Umar B. Shehu, in a Facebook post, wrote that due to power outage, his wife, Ramatu Yusuf Makusidi, died during a fibroid surgery at the Jummai Babangida Maternal and Neonatal General Hospital, Minna, Niger State.

He said, “Thirty-five minutes into my wife’s operation, NEPA took light, and there was no fuel in the theatre generator at the Jummai Babangida Aliyu General Hospital.

“Minutes later, they brought the fuel. After pouring it into the generator, it refused to start. They had to look for a mechanic. My wife was still inside the theatre.

• NTIC lauds students for outstanding performance In JAMB
• Rivers women protest abduction of 8 students travelling for WASSCE

“One of the nurses told me not to worry, that the operation had continued even without electricity. They had an alternative—torchlight—as usual.

“The mechanic arrived, but there were things he had to go and buy at the Ogbomosho area in Minna. My wife was still inside the theatre.

“An hour later, power was restored, and the mechanic was still working on the generator. So, the operation continued. A procedure that wasn’t supposed to last 90 minutes ended up taking from 4pm to 7pm.”

Shehu added that after the operation, his wife’s condition was visibly critical and efforts to get urgent medical attention were futile and eventually “she died before my eyes.”

However, the management of Jummai Babangida Aliyu Neonatal and Maternal Hospital denied the allegations, noting that Mrs Makusidi’s myomectomy procedure was successful and concluded without any fatal interruption.

“I found it expedient to put the records straight in view of the new twist of events where some politicians in their desperate quest to score cheap political points with tragic events are calling for the suspension of the medical director of the hospital over a one-sided story that had not been fact-checked,” a statement by the management said.

The statement added that “The public needs to also know that the late Mrs Ramatu’s operation lasted about 2 hours from 4:25 to 6:35 (on the 23rd April 2025). Of course at the tail end of the surgery (during the wound closure), there was a power interruption that lasted just for a few minutes. And just when the generator was about to be on, the power was restored and the surgery ended successfully. It is important to clarify that the few minutes of power outage did not in any way affect the outcome of the surgery.

“The patient was post-operatively observed and found stabled with all vital signs within normal range. The deceased was then transferred to ward for the continuation of post-operative management. At 5:23am the next day (23 April 2025), the patient’s condition changed and died at 7:23 pm at approximately 12 hours after the surgery, defying all resuscitation efforts to save her life.”

The management also said that no fewer than 15 surgeries were successfully carried out on that fateful day and only Mrs Ramatu died quite unfortunately 12 hours after the surgery.

Meanwhile, Niger State House of Assembly has vowed to investigate allegations of negligence at the hospital.

Daily Trust hopes that the committee will do a thorough job and those found wanting in the discharge of their duties should face the full weight of the law.

The assembly should also go further to make laws that will improve the conditions of all healthcare facilities in the state to avoid future occurrence of this ugly incident.

Also, it is disturbing to note that many healthcare facilities across the country face similar situations. An investigation by this paper revealed that many patients die in our hospital as a result of lack of electricity to facilitate their treatments. In-patients often have to resort to the use of rechargeable lamps and other devices.

This is caused either by the inability of the hospital to meet the high electricity bills or power outages from public power supply.

It is indeed scandalous that we still lose precious lives because of our inability to meet minimum and essential requirements in the operation of a health care facility.

We therefore, welcome the decision by the federal government to set up an implementation committee for a national stakeholders’ dialogue on power in the health sector, aimed at achieving sustainable electrification of public healthcare facilities.

According to Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako,   Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, the primary objective of the national dialogue is to, amongst others, enhance public-private partnerships to ensure a steady electricity supply to public health institutions.

He said it would also identify alternative and sustainable solutions by exploring renewable energy options, backup power systems, and energy-efficient solutions to enhance power reliability in tertiary and other health facilities across the country.

“We can no longer afford business as usual in the face of mounting energy bills of our hospitals. The time has come for all hands to be on deck to relieve our hospitals of the burden of prohibitive costs of power supply which gulps hundreds of millions of naira”.

We only hope the dialogue will proffer solutions to this problem that often leads to the death of patients in our public health care institutions.

However, before the dialogue, we believe there is an urgent need for managers of our hospitals to locally explore options of alternative power supply to our health facilities, especially the critical units. We also urge power distribution companies to prioritise supply to such institutions to minimise such incidents as happened to the late Mrs Makusidi.

We cannot continue to see precious lives being wasted in that way.