40% of healthcare costs go to power — Private hospitals lament

The Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria Private healthcare providers in Lagos have raised alarm over the rising cost of electricity and fuel, saying energy expenses alone now consume about 40 per cent of their operational costs.

In a statement on Monday, to herald its Annual General and Scientific Conference, Chairman, Lagos Chapter, Jonathan Esegine, said the burden of power bills was crippling hospitals and threatening patient care.

He said, “Our energy cost alone takes about 40 per cent of our health costs, not salaries, not taxes.

“I still had to run my generator all through the night to save a pregnant woman who was collapsing from placenta complications.

“By morning, I had spent heavily on diesel at N1,200 per litre, yet the patient could not even pay a kobo.”

He noted that while government hospitals often shut down during strikes, private doctors continue to serve patients in dire emergencies, many of whom arrive without money.

“We are close to the grassroots. Patients knock on our doors at midnight, sometimes with nothing in their pockets.

“We still attend to them, risking our safety and finances.

“Yet government keeps burdening us with multiple taxes and regulations,” Esegine lamented.

He stressed that unless the government provided a more conducive environment, including electricity subsidies and security for healthcare workers, Nigeria’s private health system, which caters to over 70 per cent of patients in Lagos would remain overstretched.

“Without a healthy population, you cannot have a robust economy.

“We have been playing this role for more than 100 years, but we need the government to recognise and support us,” he said.

Chairman, Local Organising Committee of the association’s Annual General and Scientific Conference, Tunji Akintade, said electricity costs were putting pressure on hospitals that already struggle with inadequate support.

Akintade said,” When my chairman spoke about electricity, I was going to say this is part of the major challenges we face.

“If Lagos is not strengthened, the health of citizens of this country is threatened. It affects productivity and the future of Nigeria.

“We provide care to nearly 70 per cent of the population, yet we are left to fend for ourselves.”

Akintade noted that new hospitals are no longer springing up through private investment.

“The ones coming up are funded by those in government. Meanwhile, we are trying to catch up with technology, but without subsidies from the government. During COVID, telemedicine helped.

“Why can’t the government build and subsidise digital platforms, the way they did in telecoms?

“I bought my SIM at ₦32,000 in 1999. Today, SIMs are free. Why can’t we have such interventions in healthcare?” he said

On health insurance, he accused the government of playing a double role.

“Government is acting as regulator and sometimes fund administrator.

“That is not how health insurance should work. We’ve raised our voices, but maybe the press has not amplified them enough.

“We are not speaking for ourselves but for the ordinary Nigerian,” Akintade said.

First Vice Chairman of AGPMPN, Emma Onyenuche, said politicians’ reliance on foreign healthcare while neglecting local hospitals was widening inequalities.

“Politicians travel abroad for even minor illnesses with taxpayers’ money, yet private hospitals at home are denied access to free commodities like insecticide-treated nets, HIV kits and reproductive health supplies.

“The government later calls us into meetings, pretending we were part of policy decisions. It’s just playing to the gallery,” Onyenuche said.

Onyenuche added that the current health insurance scheme is unrealistic.

“You can’t give someone N500 as capitation and expect them to visit hospitals three times in a month.

“It is actually the private sector that is subsidising healthcare in Nigeria. Government must be serious.”

The AGPMPN Lagos scientific conference, themed “Building Resilient Private Health Systems in Lagos State: A Driver of Public-Private Collaboration, Economic Stability, and Good Governance,” will be held September 10–11 at the Welcome Event Centre, Lagos.

The conference will feature free glaucoma screening for delegates, and deliberations on brain drain, insurance reform, and survival strategies for private hospitals under Nigeria’s tough economic climate.

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