Power outage disrupts services at Abuja hospital

Patients at Maitama District Hospital in Abuja faced darkness and delays on Saturday morning due to a power outage. Arriving at the hospital around 9:30am, our correspondent found patients seated in waiting areas without normal lighting. After waiting for nearly 20 minutes, the correspondent inquired with a nurse about the situation.

The nurse confirmed that the hospital had been without electricity for over an hour, stating that the outage started before the correspondent's arrival. A security guard at the facility also confirmed to our correspondent that hospital staff were unaware of the cause of the blackout.

The power failure appeared to impact the hospital's computer-based operations, complicating medical services as patients' electronic medical records and histories could not be accessed properly. A patient interviewed by our correspondent explained that he had been at the facility waiting for care due to the lack of electricity. He reported, "We don't really know what is happening. We were simply told there was no light and they couldn't attend to us because our information was on the system."

Maitama District Hospital, situated on Aguiyi Ironsi Street, serves residents of the Federal Capital Territory who rely on public healthcare services for their medical needs. Despite the lack of an immediate official statement from the hospital, the incident highlights the critical importance of uninterrupted power supply for reliable healthcare delivery.