A power outage delayed patient care at Maitama District Hospital in Abuja on Saturday morning, leaving people waiting as staff struggled to access electronic medical records.
A Punch correspondent who visited the public hospital at about 9:30am on October 10 saw patients seated in waiting areas without normal lighting. The newspaper reported that the interruption appeared to affect the hospital’s computer-based operations.
After waiting for close to 20 minutes, the correspondent asked a nurse about the blackout. The nurse said the hospital had been without electricity for more than an hour. 
A patient told Punch that he had not received attention because his information was stored on the hospital’s computer system. He said those waiting had been told staff could not attend to them without access to their records.
A security guard said staff did not know what caused the outage and could not say when electricity would return.
The hospital is on Aguiyi Ironsi Street in Maitama and serves residents who use public healthcare facilities in the Federal Capital Territory.
Hospital management had not provided an immediate official explanation for the blackout at the time of Punch’s report.
Credit: PUNCH
