The Edo State government on Thursday announced that in the last six months it had sealed not less than 108 health facilities for failing several quality assurance exercises.
This was Made known by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samuel Alli, during a press briefing held in Benin City to address healthcare regulation in the state.
Alli told Newsmen that the state government was creating a new digitised database in the state to ensure easy assessment, evaluation, and checkmate mate quackery in the health sector thereby saving the people from avoidable health challenges.
The commissioner noted that in months under review some of the facilities were sealed because they were unregistered, practicing beyond the approved scope, and use of unqualified personnel, while all those found to continue to contravene the government’s regulations after due warning would be prosecuted in court.
“We have closed down 108 health facilities practicing beyond their scope after warning. Facilities especially guilty include pharmacies, medical laboratories, and nursing homes that with impunity deviate from their areas of practice.
“For example, we had community pharmacies masquerading as medical doctors and prescribing medications, patent medicine stores selling medicines beyond their scope, nursing homes conducting surgeries, and medical laboratories admitting patients for stabilisation.
“We have had instances where the spouse of the owner of a nursing home resisted sealing because he is a military personnel. We will use all our powers as a government to bring all offenders to book.
“Most of the health facilities engage unqualified personnel. We must reiterate that no qualified doctor is licensed to train nurses. No doctor should train a nurse. If you are interested in training nurses, seek the approval of relevant authorities to open a nursing school.
“We must reiterate that we no longer tolerate the use of unqualified nurses without the supervision of a qualified nurse. Using auxiliary nurses unsupervised is not acceptable. We want all auxiliary nurses certified. We acknowledge the brain drain syndrome leading to a dearth of nurses nationwide, but this does not justify such malfeasance.”
Follow us on social media
