Oyo seals fake medical laboratory

A fake medical laboratory that was being used as a Skills Acquisition centre at Ipapo in Itesiwaju Local Government of Oyo State was, on Thursday, sealed by the Oyo State Taskforce on Private Medical Practice following a tip-off.

The fake medical laboratory was housed in a government’s old dispensary that was renovated by a National Youth Service Corps member in 2012 and marked Centre for Skills Acquisition Training Centre.

The building, sited next to a Primary Health Centre, Ipapo, was supposed to be used for training in chalk production centre and painted in the colour of Nigerian flag, was sealed about 2 pm by the task force.

The task force had inspected six private hospitals and medical laboratories in Oke Ogun area of the state and sealed five for offences which included having no current certificate of registration, dirty environment, inappropriate staffing and inadequate staffing among others.

One of the hospitals visited had four patients that had undergone hyenia surgical and a caesarean operation, without a single trained nurse or medical doctor in attendance at the time of the visit of the task force.

Chairman, Oyo State Taskforce on Private Medical Practice, Dr Adebisi Ayoola said the exercise was a continuous process to ensure that quackery medical practice is reduced in the state to the barest minimum.

The task force, he remarked was not targeting anybody or vindictive but corrective, adding that it was to ensure that all hospitals and medical laboratories, both public and private, in the state were registered and that they maintained the minimum standard of practice required by the law.

Dr Ayoola, who is also the Director, Secondary Health Care, Oyo State Ministry of Health, said the task force would not relent in ensuring that health of Nigerians is not compromised in any way.

He, however, warned against hospitals and medical laboratories commencing operation without full approval and registration of the Oyo State government, saying such, when discovered, would be sealed.