By Godfrey Osejele
The Directorate of Regulation and Monitoring Division of the Edo State Ministry of Health has sealed up an unregistered medical facility operating without license in Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
The unlicensed medical facility known as Selaf Hospital Limited has been in full operation since 2020 without an operational permit. It has also trained and inducted quacks and medical misfits while using the logo of the Nigerian Nursing Council to carry out its operations.
The Director of Nursing Sciences, Edo State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Patricia Osazuwa, who was a member of the monitoring team that went for the regulatory operation condemned the illicit manner in which the management of the hospital was carrying out their operations.
Mrs. Osazuwa asserted that a medical or health facility that intends to operate in the State ought to follow the due processes of registration which does not take more than six months.
She further criticized the management of the facility for training and inducting unqualified personnels as nurses into the medical system, while the management itself was unlicensed and was displaying a poster of the last induction ceremony carried out by the management of the facility on Saturday, 15th of April, 2023.
The Director of Medical Sciences, Edo State Ministry of Health, Dr. Edward Aisowienren, who was also a member of the monitoring team stated that the claims of undergoing registration with the CAC and paying tax to the Local Government made by the CMD were not enough reasons to commence operations, insisting that ignorance of the law cannot be feigned as an excuse in this situation.
He sent a verbal warning to other medical facilities that are illegally established, saying that it is no longer business as usual as the Ministry is fully prepared to ensure that all illegal and unstandardized medical and health facilities are brought to book.
Dr. Aisowienren appealed to the people of Edo State provide intelligence to the Ministry of Health of any unauthorized medical facility seen operating in their area.
The management of the facility was then ordered to transfer the only patient in the Hospital to another medical center, after which the facility was sealed up.
On his part, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) and owner of the facility, Dr. Emmanuel Onuoha, who was initially absent when the monitoring team visited, denied carrying out an induction ceremony. He however admitted to training personnel, but insisted that they were only trained as the facility’s assistants, not nurses.
He stated that the ceremony that took place at the aforementioned date was not an induction ceremony, but a graduation ceremony.
He added that the medical facility was undergoing registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), a process he initiated since 2020, and that several attempt to register the facility in the State’s Ministry of Health had ended in futility due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, explaining that he planned to resume the registration processes this year.
