Oyo State government has warned that it will continue to seal private hospitals that employ or train any auxiliary nurse in their health facilities as part of its efforts to reduce quackery in the state.
Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan made the disclosure after Oyo State Taskforce on Private Medical Practice sealed eight private health facilities in Ibadan and reassessed others for reopening.
At Apete, a suburb of Ibadan, the task force met a graduation ceremony for nurses ongoing at one hospital, while another had slated a graduation ceremony for its nine trainees.
Also, another hospital being run by an unregistered nurse, that was initially closed in 2008, but practicing under another name in Orogun, was also sealed.
Offences of the sealed hospitals range from non-registration of the premises, unhygienic hospital environment, improper disposal of medical wastes and failure to have qualified medical staff on ground.
Dr Adeduntan, speaking through Chairman, Oyo State Taskforce on Private Medical Practice, Dr Adebisi Ayoola, said only those that trained at accredited and approved training institutions are expected to be working in these facilities.
He declared: “there is no room for the training of the so-called auxiliary nurses; anybody that is interested in the profession should attend established and government accredited medical and nursing schools.
“In Oyo State alone, there are 12 institutions where they can be trained as nurses. Often, those we called auxiliary nurses are mostly people who do meet the criteria to attend such schools. Auxiliary nurses are quacks, as far as Oyo State government is concerned.”
Dr Adeduntan, however, warned private hospitals and medical laboratories with their annexes that only registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission to also get them registered appropriately by Oyo State government.
According to him, all facilities found culpable for any offence that regulates private health facility practice stand to face a penalty of N100, 000 or one-year imprisonment.
The exercise, which he said was a continuous one, he declared, was not targeting anybody or vindictive but corrective, urging people who need information on criteria for registration on any health facility, including medical laboratories to freely come to the ministry.
