UBTH spends N100m yearly on indigent patients —CMD

The Chief Medical Director of University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Professor Darlington Obaseki, has raised the alarm over the rising cases of indigent patients who cannot afford to offset their medical bills after treatment.

As the premier tertiary health centre in the oil rich Niger Delta region and a gateway to the eastern, western and northern parts of the country, Obaseki said that the hospital was inundated with several hundreds of indigent patients who hang out in the wards long after their treatment because of their inability to pay for medical services they receive.

For 2020, the medical director disclosed that a total of 400 indigent patients who owed a whopping N100 million and could not afford payment, were still languishing in the hospital’s wards.

“Every year, we lose close to N100 million to patients who cannot afford to pay. In 2020, almost 400 patients could not afford to pay. They are everywhere in our wards”, he said, adding that the authorities were still computing the figure for 2021, assuring that they would be published once they are through with the verification.

Obaseki appealed to highly placed individuals and corporate organisations to come to the aid of the patients, adding that the hospital would find it very difficult to cope in the nearest future if the rising figure was not checked.

“Those who are able should pay. They can, if possible, even pay a little more so that the hospital can now subsidise those who cannot pay. That’s the philosophy behind our corporate services and premium world. If we give them that extra paraphernalia of care that they want, the extra money can be used to subsidise indigent patients,” he said.

Obaseki lamented that it was cause for great concern that the health insurance was not working well both at the federal and state levels, adding that even a supposedly wealthy man might be struck by a sickness that he was not prepared for and would require millions to be flown abroad and so might not be able to pay for it.

“The economy is bad and times are really very hard. Quality and price go together. That is, you cannot provide quality service without paying for it. We have spent so much money to improve the quality of our services. It is not about a particular patient who cannot afford to pay. We may choose to do it free but what of the next patient? We have to replenish our stocks so that the next patient will have something to use. We know that the economy is very hard but we have not increased prices.

“We spend a lot of money to feed our patients. The price of foodstuffs has gone up. We are not breaking even. The prices of our drugs are still the lowest anywhere in this country. We are aware of the state of affairs,” he added.