Oh UCH!!!

OUCH!!! Oh, UCH!!! The current situation of the University College Hospital, Ibadan draws one closer to tears than to cheers. The condition of UCH prompts nothing other than anguish. In the same level, reports about UCH and some of the first-hand experience there, move one to lament what could have been and how much some of our country’s cherished institutions have been allowed to drift out to the sea of near uselessness.

Today, it’s the UCH in Ibadan. The students of the College of Medicine openly cried out in protest on Wednesday. They didn’t just sit in their corners to continue their hushed lamentations; they took to the streets and carried placards. They said for 82 days, they had been living without electricity in their school and hospital. Add three days to when they came out to protest and they would have been in darkness for 85 days as you read this. Mr. Bolaji Aweda, the President of University of Ibadan Students Union, who spoke on behalf of the protesting students, said: “For 82 days, there has been no light at UCH and this is due to the inability of UCH to pay its electricity bill to IBEDC.” IBEDC is Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company.

The cherished UCH has been in a running battle with IBEDC. The electricity distribution company seems to see UCH as one of the cash cows in its jurisdiction and has been unforgiving in its dealing with the hospital and the hospital community. That remains an urgent issue for the Visitor to the University (of Ibadan) which is the mother institution to UCH, and the government at that level to handle. We should take UCH as a metaphor for other such institutions across Nigeria. Nearly all other such various Nigerian institutions and monuments are in the same dire straits as UCH. However, their cries of anguish are usually muffled by the looks they receive from observers and benefactors, by the kind of people at the concerned institution, and by the type of governments we attract. The bitter cries for attention by our institutions are everywhere but they are relegated to mere whimpers by various surrounding factors.

As bad as the situation is, the vision, according to UCH as an institution still remains as inspiring as they want it to be. It is “to be the flagship tertiary health care institution in the West Africa sub-region, offering world-class training, research and services.” The vision is clear and looks quite attainable but the path to achieving the vision is riddled with treacherous thorns and unyielding hurdles. The management of UCH knows that the path is tortuous but it should not be the expectation of any reasonable person to see the Nigerian system place hindrances on the path to attaining this vision. UCH made a veiled reference to its agony in its Christmas message this last Yuletide season. Many might not know that it was not particularly a merry Christmas for UCH as a hospital, and its community, somehow, groped through the joyful season without saying a word about it. There was no electricity and this cannot be a thing to be proud of. The patients and their minders know how difficult and heart-rending this situation could be. And for now, there is still no reprieve in sight… Ouch!

The copy of the jingle by UCH last Christmas says: “Medical pioneers laid the foundation for an excellent tertiary healthcare institution. The work of these pioneers has, in the whole of the Commonwealth, earned the UCH, Ibadan an enviable ranking that was second after the Edinburgh Medical School. Decades down the line, the institution has been rocked to its foundations and most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, we have chosen to blow out kisses of peace and joy this beautiful season of love to spotlight our commitment to impact humanity with our expertise and excellence. And so, with a shared vision for excellence, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year.” The message was signed by Professor Jesse Otegbayo, the Chief Medical Director “on behalf of the board, management, staff and students of the hospital as well as the Chairman, UCH Health Foundation, Dr Olutoyin Okeowo.”

The 2024 Yuletide jingle by UCH referred to medical pioneers and the enviable height the hospital attained in the Commonwealth. “Decades down the line, the institution has been rocked to its foundation.” One wonders how much of an impact COVID-19 has to be to emerge as a factor in the lack of a basic amenity as electricity which has crippled many aspects of the operations of UCH. More than once, the IBEDC has disconnected the hospital’s electricity amid demands of bills which sometimes sound outrageous.

Ouch, as a cry of pain and anguish, is usually followed by a corresponding grimace. It sometimes ends in tears and regret. Tears and regret would have best described the painful descent of the University College Hospital (UCH) from the minds of many who have stories of woe to tell from their recent experiences there. To such people, the University College Hospital, Ibadan has fallen from the pinnacle of reputable health institutions. By their reckoning, that awe-inspiring, legendary and once revered health institution based in Ibadan, which gave joy, hope and inspiration is no longer the same. UCH “has been rocked to its foundations” and, with what has been allowed to happen to UCH, mere ‘ouch!’ or ‘oh UCH!’ do not now really capture the deep pain and regret that have replaced the joy and peace of mind UCH once gave. It is now more of ‘yeeee!’ and ‘eeeyah!’ Yet, ‘no light’ has become a very common song in UCH.

The persistent obvious needs of the hospital do not end at only the lack of electricity which has ruined the opportunity to do some basic things. It is the most pressing of the needs of the hospital and one, when permanently solved, would most likely trigger a revolution there. So, why would the government not take decisive steps to solve this problem? Why has UCH been allowed to crash from that pristine height? If this neglect is deliberate, we beg President Bola Tinubu to urgently look into it and reverse the trend. This is one misnomer that negatively affects so many other things in our country’s health sector. I think we should remind President Tinubu that UCH is still that “million dollar baby which was always crying for money.” From 1957 when patient care started at the hospital, I don’t think there has been a time it needed more government attention than now.

However, the current cold shoulder of the relevant offices of the federal government to the electricity confusion at UCH is a pointer to their disinterest in how these institutions fare in real terms. This lack of interest makes it look like it is such a passion to kill institutions and monuments in Nigeria. One wonders why this is so. If this acute contention is not so, why are our public institutions and monuments always in a progressive state of decline from their inauguration? Where are those things that gave Nigeria the name it bore in the years of oil boom that preceded oil doom? What is the condition of that institution you heard about as a child compared to what it was in its early days? Where would you place such institutions when compared to others of the same age in other parts of the world? Most of the hospitals some of our people go to when on their medical tours are older than UCH, but they are still in their prime because of government and management. It should be stated that the protest that rocked UCH on Wednesday was like the inevitable sprouting of a buried seed. The seed of protest and frustration had been planted by the owners of the institution and its handlers.

However, the tales of woe from UCH tend to disregard or belittle the many great things that had sprouted from that hospital. This is far from that line of thought but a sincere cry to the relevant authorities to make UCH great again. What about genuine electricity and related subsidies to UCH and other such institutions that bear direct relevance to the life of the people? Many feats that are attributable to that great institution which today has been made the butt of untenable jokes. Why this neglect? Is it because they and their families don’t always use the facilities? The Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria said on Thursday that only 6,000 consultants are all we have left in the country of over 200 million population! If this is not alarming, I wonder what would move our government. UCH is one of the most affected by the current great exodus which has surpassed what happened in the health sector during the military. Ouch! Oh, UCH!!!

READ ALSO: UI students protest over unresolved power outage at UCH