Mohammed Shosanya
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa,says the Federal Government has approved a 50% subsidy on electricity for public hospitals nationwide.
He spoke in Abuja on Thursday,stating that this initiative is intended to minimize operating expenses for public hospitals and lessen the burden on patients.
He said the government will change the names of Federal Hospitals to Specialist Hospitals to expand care delivery and destigmatize hospitals so that everybody can come there.
“While the core services will remain psychiatric, this re-naming will allow for the continuous expansion of services,”
“We know they are development institutions, they are social institutions. But inside the health and educational institutions, private businesses are hiding under them. These people charge their customers commercially and they expect to be subsidised because they are located within the territories of these institutions.
“We said no, go and do a proper search and meter everybody. For the ones that are properly health and education-related, we are ready to subsidise them, even if they are on Band A. We are compiling our data, DisCos will collect a certain amount and the government will pay the balance.
“But we must get the data right so that we are not subsidising a private business that is charging its customers commercially. That will be an abnormal profit and it is unfair”.