Electricity tariff hike: Eight Borno hospitals shut down

At least eight private hospitals in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, have shut down because of the hike in electricity tariff.

This development has become a cause of concern for the Guild of Medical Directors.

The Guild said besides the high cost of electricity consumption, other issues affecting private hospitals negatively are multiple taxations, brain drain, high cost of importation of medical equipment, and hike in drug prices.

The GMD raised these issues

during a press briefing at the end of the guild’s 2024 National Annual General Meeting, themed, ‘From Profession to Industry Practice in a VUCA Environment’, held in Lagos.

Speaking at the event, the GMD’s National President, Dr Raymond Kuti, said” The environment for the health business is very volatile now. It is very uncertain, very complex, and very ambiguous.

“We have restrictive policies, which are not making the needed access to healthcare to be available.

“These restrictive policies involve multiple taxations and then, we are having issues with the cost of running our hospitals due to an increase in the cost of medications and the other consumables.”

Lamenting further, he said, “The most important one now is power supply. I can tell you now that we have hospitals that are using at least close to N25 million a month to generate power and that is tough for hospitals.

“That is just to generate power and of course, the policy of dollarisation of most of our consumables is impacting the running of hospitals.”