Gombe suspends private health institutions for operating below standards

The Gombe State Government has announced the suspension of all academic activities in private health institutions in the state for operating below standards and without accreditation.

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The Gombe State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Habu Dahiru, said this during a media briefing after the Executive Council Meeting in Gombe, chaired by Governor Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya.

The Gombe State Commissioner of Health said the State Executive Council had noted with concern the proliferation of such schools of health technologies in Gombe State and that it did not augur well with human resources the state needed.

“These schools are not registered properly. They don’t have the pre-requisite structures, facilities, and manpower. And the training in has become inadequate. This results in their inability to get certified and they have no license to practice,” said Dr. Dahiru.

He said a committee had been set up to revalidate the existence of such health institutions.

Particularly, Dr. Dahiru said the Executive Council directed the committee, made up of the Commissioners of Justice, Higher Education, Education, Health, and Science, Technology, and Innovation, to look out for all the standard requirements for the existence of such schools in the state.

“We are going to look into, particularly the staffing, the structures in terms of availability of classrooms, availability of hostels, availability of laboratories and laboratory equipment for practical, the human resources, the lecturers that are required to give tutorials to the students,” the Gombe State Commissioner of Health said.

Dr. Dahiru said another aspect the committee would look out for was the competence of those to supervise the students while on practical in primary healthcare facilities and General Hospitals.

He said the development was worrisome to the government, hence the suspension, until schools provided the availability of required standards before they would be reopened to function.

According to him, any school found lacking in the availability of the standard facilities would be closed down.

Dr. Dahiru said the consequences for students who graduated from such institutions was a lack of qualifications, which would lead to a lack of employment because they would end up practicing quackery in patent medicine stores.

Consequently, he cautioned parents to note that the school fees being charged were too high and the students would at the end of the training not be given any certificates or be registered as health practitioners, because the schools were not accredited.