The Anambra State Ministry of Health has kicked off the inspection of private and public hospitals across the state with the objective of closing down any hospital that fails to meet the stipulated standards.
The inspection exercise which kicked off in Awka, the state capital, was led by the Head of Medical Services from the state ministry of Health, Dr. Ugochukwu Chukwulobelu. The team visited some medical facilities within the city in order to ascertain their level of compliance as regards operating standards.
Dr. Chukwulobelu explained that the exercise is very crucial to the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo who is determined to provide indigenes with affordable and efficient healthcare system devoid of quackery and unwholesome practices. He said that the ministry found out that there are a lot of gaps in the system of which the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Afam Obidike mandated them to move across the state to identify hospitals that are operating below standards. According to him, those operating with quack medical personnels as well as medical facilities cited at unhygienic places will face immediate sanctions.
“Government is making a sincere effort to change the narrative in the healthcare sector and would not want any Anambra citizen to die out of carelessness, unprofessionalism of medical practitioners’’, he said. He said that they do not give the medical facilities notice of their visits in order to meet them in the way and manner they used to operate and assured that they will continue the exercise until all the medical facilities in the state are sanitized.
Dr. Chukwulobelu pointed out that government owned medical facilities are not left out as the Commissioner for Health and his team has been monitoring their services since he assumed office.
“The employment of no fewer than three hundred medical personnel recently by the Anambra State Government to feel the gaps noticed in the government medical facilities is highly commendable’’, he added.
He regretted that his team temporarily closed down King David Hospital, Ziks Avenue, Off Ichide Street, Awka as a result of lack of qualified medical personnel, standard medical facilities and unconducive environment.
“If the hospital improves within the time frame given to them, it will be re-opened but if not, it would be permanently closed to serve as a deterrent to others”, Chukwulobelu assured.
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