Lagos’s government closes 42 illegal medical establishments

The state Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, HEFAMAA, closed at least 42 health facilities out of 1040 in Lagos between January and September 2022 due to illegal activities and other connected infractions.

Dr. Abiola Idowu, the agency’s executive secretary, said this yesterday in Ikeja while assessing the agency’s nine-month period of operations.
Idowu stated that the institutions were sealed because they did not adhere to regulatory norms, and she added that additional violations included the failure to register the facilities, a shortage of competent medical staff, and the improper training of auxiliary nurses.

She said that over the same time period, 157 closure letters were issued and 170 establishments were inspected for registration throughout the state.

Idowu emphasized that the important areas monitoring officers pay attention to during monitoring and inspection exercises of health facilities are the staff’s qualifications, the facility’s operational procedures, the environment, and the equipment’s quality.

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Speaking further about HEFAMAA’s monitoring efforts, the Executive Secretary m. stated that the franchise’s goal was to increase the effectiveness of the monitoring process so that all of the state’s medical facilities could be monitored at least twice a year as required by law.

She stated: “The Health Sector Reform (HSR) Law 2006 gives the agency the authority to franchise some of its operations. The Agency was given the authority to choose franchise businesses under Section 49(5) of the law in order to oversee and guarantee the State’s health facilities’ adherence to the law.

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Idowu advised health facility owners and operators to become familiar with the law and follow it when conducting their business in order to protect the public’s health.

She emphasized the state government’s commitment to continuing the fight against quackery and unprofessional behavior in the system and urged aspiring operators to register properly with the agency through its website, hefamaa.lagosstate.gov.ng, before beginning operations. She also advised currently registered operators to promptly renew their certificates to avoid being penalized.