The attention of the Management of University of Benin Teaching Hospital has been drawn to some misinformed and misleading publications on the social media in recent times, bordering on the inability of some patients to pay their medical bills. It is against this background that we provide the following clarifications:

1. The challenge of access and equity in healthcare service delivery is national and not peculiar to UBTH. It is not within the powers of UBTH to grant free healthcare to clients, which obviously is not a sustainable model in the present economic climate.

2. In spite of the above, UBTH being sensitive to the present economic situation has been granting hospital bills waivers to several clients, adjudged to be so – deserving . In 2019, a total of 312 patients were granted waivers of their hospital bills to the tune of ₦89, 304, 959 (eighty nine million, three hundred and four thousand, nine hundred and fifty nine naira) and up till September 30, this year, the sum of ₦91, 634,131 (ninety one million, six hundred and thirty four thousand, one hundred and thirty one naira) has been waived by the Hospital Management.

3. The present UBTH Management in 2017, instituted an Indigent Patient Fund, to which staff of the hospital contribute and which is deployed to defray hospital bills of indigent patients.

4. It is pertinent to note that, the furore arising from the social media claims stems from the unquestioned commitment of UBTH to providing quality healthcare to all her clients at the point of entry, irrespective of inability or unwillingness to pay in emergency situations.

ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK AT THE FACILITY LEVEL (IPCAF)
The University of Benin Teaching Hospital is one of three facilities that was adjudged to be at the advanced level among twenty-nine (29) public facilities in the Orange network across the nation in the just concluded baseline assessment on Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) using the WHO Assessment of Infection Prevention and Control Assessment Framework at the Facility Level (IPCAF) tool, by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Medical Director, Prof. D.E Obaseki, congratulating the hospital for being in the top 10 percentile, the Director General of NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, explained that IPCAF is structured according to the recommendations in the World Health Organization Guidelines on core components of IPC programmes at the facility level. IPCAF is divided into eight sections, reflecting the eight WHO IPC core components, which are then addressed by a total of 81 indicators. These indicators are based on evidence and expert consensus, and have been framed as questions with defined answers to provide an orientation for assessment. Based on the overall score achieved in the eight sections, the facility is assigned to one of four levels of IPC promotion and practice, with Advanced being the highest level attainable.