Oyo govt frowns on medical quackery, noise pollution

Against the backdrop of petitions against malpractices in many health facilities, Oyo State Government has sternly warned against quackery and illegal hospitals and laboratories, saying its task force will be going out weekly to nab and ensure they are penalised.

Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan stated this when he led the Oyo State Task Force on Private Health Facilities to monitor private hospitals and medical laboratories  in Ibadan on Tuesday. The task force had paid unscheduled visit to three private hospitals and two medical laboratories in Ibadan.

Adeduntan, who remarked that Oyo State Ministry of Health had been flooded with petitions on malpractices in many hospitals, stated that the government would not relent in sanitising and driving out all quacks in the health sector.

He stated that quackery practice was against the government’s moves to change the health care delivery system in the state and make Oyo State “Mecca of Medicine” in the country.

The Health Commissioner, who declared that henceforth routine visitations will constantly be made to all private and government hospitals within the state, urged individuals to report cases of mismanagement or mistreatment at any health facility to the state’s ministry of health for appropriate intervention.

Adeduntan also warned against noise pollution at night by religious houses, saying it was a contributory factor to cases of sudden death arising from hypertension in the state.

According to him, “A lot of sudden deaths now in Oyo State are due to hypertension and sudden heart attack arising from noise pollution. So we are calling on our religious leaders to let them know the health implication of noise pollution.”

He, however, assured that facelift of public hospitals in the state was to start soon, adding that a consignment of medications from USA was also being awaited for the hospitals.

“We are not just going to sit down at the Ministry of Health to safeguard health; Governor Abiola Ajimobi is very interested in making sure that health is number one in the state.

“Health is wealth and one of the legacies this government wants to leave behind is that indigenes of the state, regardless of where they reside, have the best health care they can get in the world,” he concluded.