Nasarawa shuts 42 clinics, labs without licences

Nasarawa state government has raided and sealed 42 clinics and medical laboratories not registered with the Ministry of Health in various parts of Karu local government area of the state. State Commissioner for Health, Daniel Iya, who led a team of inspectors during the operation, said the sealing of the aff ected medical centres was necessary so as to stem the proliferation of illegal hospitals, clinics and laboratories, which he said, posed serious danger to residents in the area.

Iya expressed worry over the proliferation of illegal health facilities in the local government, warning that any health practitioner, who wanted to operate in the state, must follow the due process and be licensed. Premium Times had reported the shutting down of 126 illegal health facilities in the same Karu local government two year ago. Th e 126 health facilities were shut down after a thorough investigation and discovery that they never had any formal registration and as such had no operational licenses.

None of them paid their taxes to the state government. Iya, noted that the state ministry of health would not relent in its eff ort to curb illegality in the health sector. Reacting to the proliferation of illegal health centres in the country, Henry Ewunonu, a medical doctor in Abuja, told Premium Times that the trend had put the nation’s health sector in disrepute. “In this same Nasarawa, a man running a clinic was said to have transfused a 6-year-old boy with HIV infected blood. Th is clinic was illegal, unregistered or registered with forged papers. “Th is boy now has HIV and when an investigation was conducted it was discovered that the donor of the blood also has HIV. Th e menace of quackery is high, but in low places in this country”, he said.

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