The Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Delta State University Teaching Hospital (DELSUTH), Oghara, has raised the alarm over what it described as an unfolding healthcare emergency, warning that the state's only teaching hospital can no longer provide the level of specialist medical care Deltans deserve following a prolonged power outage caused by the failure of its step-down transformer.
In a strongly worded press statement, the doctors said the hospital has been operating under severely constrained conditions since the transformer broke down on June 18, 2026, despite the delivery of a replacement transformer on July 12. Although installation has commenced, they noted that the process remains incomplete and electricity has yet to be restored from the national grid, forcing the hospital to depend on generators that provide only a few hours of electricity daily.
According to the association, the prolonged power outage has crippled critical medical services, with hospital management officially directing that no new inpatient admissions be undertaken, while admissions into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) remain suspended. The statement also disclosed that dialysis services have been halted, while patients requiring admission or intensive care are now being stabilised and referred to other healthcare facilities.
The doctors said the situation has effectively reduced DELSUTH from a tertiary referral centre to a hospital offering mainly outpatient consultations.
"Despite the suspension of the Medical and Dental Consultants' Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) industrial action, most hospital wards remain largely empty because new admissions have been halted. Clinical activities have been reduced mainly to outpatient consultations during the limited hours of electricity and the temporary stabilisation of emergency cases before referral to other hospitals," the association stated.
Declaring that "this is not how a tertiary teaching hospital is meant to function," the resident doctors warned that many critically ill patients require immediate definitive treatment rather than stabilisation and referral.
The statement cited emergency cases such as life-threatening obstetric haemorrhage, ruptured ectopic pregnancies, perforated bowel, severe trauma, obstructed labour and acute renal failure requiring dialysis, stressing that such patients often need urgent surgeries or specialised interventions that DELSUTH is currently unable to consistently provide.
"For many critically ill patients, stabilisation is only the first step. A woman with life-threatening obstetric haemorrhage may require an emergency Caesarean section or laparotomy. A patient with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, perforated bowel, severe trauma, obstructed labour, acute renal failure requiring dialysis, or other surgical emergency often requires immediate definitive treatment—not simply stabilisation and referral. Every delay in providing such care may adversely affect patient outcomes."
The doctors lamented that Delta State's apex public referral hospital has become unable to deliver many essential tertiary healthcare services because of what they described as a prolonged infrastructure failure.
Beyond patient care, the association warned that the crisis is also taking a heavy toll on medical education and hospital operations.
According to the statement, residency training programmes have been severely disrupted, undergraduate medical education adversely affected, and hospital revenue significantly reduced. It further noted that healthcare professionals are unable to practise to the full extent of their expertise, while patients and their families are forced to seek specialist treatment elsewhere at enormous financial, physical and emotional costs.
While acknowledging the Delta State Government for procuring a replacement transformer and recognising that installation work is ongoing, the association insisted that the crisis would persist until electricity is fully restored.
"Until the installation is completed, the transformer is energised, and DELSUTH is reconnected to the national grid, healthcare services will remain severely constrained."
The resident doctors described the restoration of electricity as an urgent public health necessity rather than merely an engineering project.
"Every additional day of delay translates into continued disruption of patient care, prolonged interruption of residency training, reduced hospital productivity and avoidable hardship for thousands of Deltans who depend on DELSUTH for specialist healthcare. The restoration of electricity is therefore no longer merely an engineering exercise—it is an urgent public health priority."
ARD DELSUTH consequently appealed to the Delta State Government, hospital management, the installation contractors, BEDC Electricity Plc and all relevant stakeholders to expedite the completion, energisation and commissioning of the transformer.
The association stressed that Delta residents should not have to watch their only teaching hospital operate largely as a facility restricted to outpatient consultations and referrals.
Reaffirming DELSUTH's strategic importance, the doctors described the institution as the state's apex public referral and teaching hospital where critically ill patients should receive specialist care and where future medical specialists are trained.
"DELSUTH is the apex public referral and teaching institution in Delta State. It is where the sickest patients should receive definitive specialist care, where future specialists are trained, and where generations of healthcare professionals acquire the skills required to serve our State. It should never become a facility where definitive care is unavailable because of a prolonged infrastructure failure."
The association pledged to continue engaging constructively with the Delta State Government and hospital management while advocating measures that would protect patients and strengthen healthcare delivery.
It concluded with an appeal for urgent intervention, declaring: "The people of Delta State deserve a fully functional teaching hospital. The time to restore DELSUTH is now."
