THE Association of Nigerian Private Medical Practitioners (ANPMP) has disclosed that at least 500 private hospitals across the country have been forced to shut down in the face of current economic hardship within the past six months.
The National President of ANPMP, Dr. Kay Adesola, made the disclosure weekend, at a press conference in Makurdi, Benue State, during the association’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
Adesola said the affected hospitals stopped operations due to hardship occasioned by inability of patients to pay for treatment, inadequate capitation of the national health insurance scheme and cost of energy.
He said, “Hospitals are shutting down because when you have to give a service to someone and you think you deserve to be paid N8,000 but the person can only struggle to pay you N1,500 or N2,000, how many people are you going to do that for? You cannot afford to pay your workers. If they try to manage first month, by the second month, they will leave the place. And when they leave you cannot run the hospital alone. Of course, they (hospital owners) will now feel this is not rewarding, it’s stressful and frustrating so they close shop.
“There are so many reasons why they close shops. And we hardly get any support or help, instead an average private hospital on its own will be like a local government as they will be the one to source for own energy, water, security and so on. The hospital on its own is overburdened; despite that government still sees them as place where they should make money. “By the time you face all these challenges not many people can survive it. That is why many of them are shutting down. Talking about the number, I may not be able to give the exact number but out of 13,000 (facilities), at least in the last six months, it can’t be less than 400 or 500 across the country that have closed shops.
“And it is not as if something has stopped that trend. We are afraid because if you go to government hospitals now, there are no enough personnel so you can’t really access service the way you want. And the private that is very ready any time, we are now getting reduced in a growing population.”
The NEC meeting was hosted by the Benue State chapter of ANPMP led by the State Chairman, Dr. John Dzika and State Secretary, Dr. Innocent Abi alongside other executive members.
