The Federal Medical Centre in Keffi, Nasarawa State, has refuted viral social media allegations claiming that patients were required to purchase fuel before surgical procedures could be performed during power outages.
Miss Esther Bature, Head of Public Relations and Protocol at the medical center, issued a rebuttal on Friday, describing the claims as false and malicious.
“The management recently became aware of posts on social media, specifically Facebook, alleging that whenever there was power outage, patients were made to buy petrol for operations to be carried out on them,” Bature stated. “This allegation is untrue, malicious and misleading.”
She explained that while a recent rainstorm disrupted electricity in Keffi for over 48 hours, the hospital never demanded fuel purchases from patients.
“Due to the effect of that rainstorm, power was disrupted for more than 48 hours. The centre was not an exception,” Bature said. “However, the medical centre made use of its contingency plans in terms of power supply and did not at any point mandate patients to buy fuel before attending to them.”
The hospital official detailed the facility’s backup power systems: “The hospital has solar power system, petrol and diesel generators to augment public power supply at critical areas of the hospital like the Theatre, Radiology, Intensive Care Unit among others. So, at no time was any patient asked to go and buy fuel before being attended to.”
Bature suggested the rumors were intended to tarnish the hospital’s reputation: “The peddlers of such rumours must be bent on discrediting the efforts that the current management is putting to make healthcare experience in the centre pleasurable.”
Reaffirming the center’s commitment to quality care, she added: “The medical centre was committed to rendering the best of services to humanity as its core mandates. It is to this end that we implore everyone, especially the good friends of the hospital to walk into the facility, ask questions for clarity and even report their experiences to the management.”
