*We are on generators and rationing supply, says management

By Sola Ogundipe

The unavailability of power supply from the Independent Power Project company, IPP, is threatening normal activities and the welfare of patients at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH.

Disclosing the development in a series of tweets on its handle @LASUTHikeja the management of the tertiary hospital said that it has been subsisting solely on generators over the past five weeks and had had to periodically shut them down in order to assure trouble-free operation.

In the tweets tagged “Power Situation in LASUTH”, the LASUTH management regretted that the development had inconvenienced some patients, even as it said it was ensuring the rationing of power supply was judiciously done.

It said the importance of maintaining adequate care and service to patients as well as prioritising essential power supply to critical areas could not be overemphasised.

While pleading with patients to bear with it, the LASUTH management expressed hope that normalcy would return as soon as possible.

The tweets read in part: “For the 5th week running, the Independent Power Project company had not supplied power to LASUTH. As a result, the hospital had been running on generators. In order to ensure hitch-free operations of the generators they have to be shut down times at intervals.

“During these times, which incidentally had been made as short as possible, some inconvenience is experienced by our patients.

“As a responsible hospital management, we have to keep our services running, hence we must necessarily prioritise supply to critical areas.

“We hope that normalcy will soon be restored but in the meantime, we appeal to our numerous patients to bear with us.

In 2022, the state government approved the purchase of three brand new 500 KVA power-generating sets to boost the power supply in LASUTH.

The generating plants were purchased to augment the power supply from the Mainland Independent Power Project, which had been epileptic as a result of a shortage in the supply of gas to run the turbines.

The generators have since been running almost full time forcing the health institution to resort to rationing power supply.

A series of blackouts have been recorded in the past at LASUTH as a result of a perennial shortage of electricity supply from the IPP.

In February 2022, the health institution recorded a collapse in electricity supply from the IPP leading to a shortage of water supply for several days, because the available generators lacked capacity to meet the demand.