The Enugu State Task Force on Unethical Practices in Private Hospitals on Thursday said it would arrest and prosecute operators of illegal and substandard hospitals and laboratories in the state.
The state Commissioner for Heath, Dr. Fidelia Ugwu, stated this shortly after the task force visited some hospitals in Enugu.
She warned that the team would not hesitate to take legal action against medical practitioners that reopened blacklisted hospitals without government approval.
She said, “Anyone who goes contrary to our laws to reopen any hospital that has been shut would be arrested and dealt with because the task force has means of monitoring the closed down hospitals.”
At the Balm of Gilead Hospital, Maryland, Enugu, the commissioner charged its proprietor to upgrade the hospital's facilities, especially its theatre to provide adequate oxygen to ensure safe practice.
She also urged the owner to buy an anaesthetics machine and bull nose cylinder.
At Machuks Laboratories, the commissioner said, “The owner is operating a clinic, though he is not a doctor.”
She added, “The operator of the clinic is going outside his jurisdiction as he is only trained to deliver laboratory services and not to prescribe medicine.”
She, therefore, asked the proprietor to desist from offering those services.
