Ondo State Government on Thursday sealed off a private hospital in Okitipupa reportedly owned by Dr. Odusola Aribo for training auxiliary nurses against the established law.
The Acting Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health, Dr. Dipo Durojaye, after being briefed by the Ministry’s Monitoring team, who monitored hospitals in Okitipupa, said Aribo also started a hospital without following laid down regulations.
Durojaye added Aribo did not register the hospital with the State Ministry of Health, which makes it illegal.
He said it would not be business as usual in the State health sector as government will descend heavily on quacks and those opening hospitals indiscriminately.
The Acting PS vowed that any private health institution indulging in the training of health personnel would be sanctioned stressing government will not allow the life of the people to be endangered.
He also warned Patient Medicine Stores operating as hospitals and treating patients to desist from such acts, which according to him, posed great threat to the well-being of the society.
The Director Hospital Services, Dr Richard Adesoji, said quacks are dangerous to the health sector as they were not properly trained and could not make correct diagnosis.
He disclosed hospitals that cannot employ qualified Nurses can make use of Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWS) as agreed at the National Council on Health.
The Director Nursing Services, Mrs. Alice Ogundele, who led the monitoring team to Okitipupa, said it was alarming that some hospital in that locality had more than 50 quacks in training when even some accredited Schools of Nursing and Midwifery were only allowed to admit 50 or less.
Mrs. Ogundele said this trend was dangerous to the nursing profession as it will not allow qualified nurses getting jobs as these quacks are source of cheap labour.
Some other hospitals visited in Okitipupa are St. Peter’s Hospital, Akingbola Hospital and Oresanya Hospital where student trainees took to their heels on sighting the monitoring team.
The three hospitals were served letters of warning to desist from acts that are capable of endangering the health of the people or face seriously sanctions and eventual.
source: thenationonlineng.net/ondo-shuts-hospital-for-training-quack-nurses/
