In furtherance of its pledge to sanitize the private health sector, the Oyo state government's Task force on Private Health Facilities sealed four hospitals over offences ranging from non-registration of the premises, unhygienic hospital environment, improper disposal of medical wastes and failure to have qualified medical staff on ground.
The task force sealed a hospital in Apete area, which is among the four over its prescription of analgin to patients, a banned drug in Nigeria.
The task force, which got to the hospital, run by a community health extension worker about 2pm found that a male patient, a civil servant, who had initially made a deposit of N10, 000 at the hospitals for treatment of what the hospital queried as enteric fever, was being administered the banned drug, alongside four other painkillers and four antibiotics by intramuscular routes.
The task force, thereafter sealed the hospital after referring the patient to the nearest government hospital.
The facility was initially visited by the taskforce weeks back to ensure the facility was duly registered,
Chairman, Oyo State Task force on Private Medical Practice, Dr Adebisi Ayoola, disclosed that the practice at the hospital could be described as trial and error which could cost the lives of patients, adding that no hospital was expected to administer analgin.
“There are rules and regulations for all private health facilities; and no hospital is expected to give drugs through intramuscular route,’’ he said.
Ayoola stated that though nurses and community health workers are permitted to register and operate a health facility, they must do that within the confines of what the law stipulated.
