High cost of diesel: FMC CMD in Abeokuta begs FG for support
Bankole Taiwo, Abeokuta
The Chief Medical Director of Federal Medical Centre, (FMC) Abeokuta, Prof Adewale Musa-Olomu has lamented the enormous cost of providing energy for the smooth running of the hospital saying that the the hospital spends an average of N44million monthly on diesel to power its generating sets
Prof Musa-Olomu disclosed that this huge bill is no doubt becoming a burden to the smooth running of the hospital stating that it won’t be out of place if the authority concerned quickly declared state of emergency to arrest this ugly trend.
He stated that while the government is doing so much in terms of provision of structures and equipment that could aid qualitative healthcare, the government should also help with the soaring cost of energy otherwise the burden would be turned on the members of the public already grappling with the challenges of the biting economy.
The CMD made this call during the free medical outreach organised by the hospital for the journalists in Ogun State.
The one day free medical service was held within Ogun NUJ secretariat, Iwe Iroyin, Oke Ilewo, Abeokuta. The exercise featured health talk, test for HIV/AIDS, diabetes, hypertension among others while drugs were also given to the people.
The CMD added that the high cost of diesel which jumped from N600 to N730 per litre recently was threatening the survival of the medical institution.
“Government needs to declare a state-of-emergency on energy in tertiary institutions if they want us to carry on, it is just very necessary.
“In FMC, Abeokuta, we use N5million worth of diesel every two weeks that comes to N10million in a month, but suddenly the thing (diesel) jumped to N22million (every two weeks) and now it is N44million in a month. So, how are we going to cope?
“Everybody knows the state of diesel, diesel is what we all use to power our generators and if as a medical centre we were consuming something in the worth of N10million, but suddenly jumped to N44million, how are we going to cope?
“But, if the Federal government comes to our aid by declaring a state-of-emergency in the energy sector and probably they give us Solar panels of about 1,000MW as they have given some other tertiary institutions, it will help us a lot and the charges on the innocent patients will be reduced and people will be ready to access health care,” he said.
He explained that the significance and contributions of journalists to nation building and development cannot be overemphasised saying that this informed the decision of the hospital to reach out to the journalists with the free healthcare services.
Urging the journalists to embrace healthy living, Prof Musa-Olomu counselled the media practitioners to stay away from alcohol, smoking among other harmful practices that could put their health at risk.
The CMD told journalists to also stay away from carbonated drinks and other junk foods telling them to rather embrace drinking plenty water as this help to maintain healthy kidneys and healthy life.
