FCTA vows to seal health facilities providing substandard services

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has vowed to seal any health facility providing substandard services within the territory.

Dr Abubakar Ahmadu, the Director, Medical and Diagnostic, Health and Human Services Secretariat FCTA, issued the warning while addressing newsmen after an inspection, on Tuesday in Abuja.

Our correspondent reports that Private Health Establishments Registration and Monitoring Committee (PHERMC), under the Department of Medical and Diagnostics embarked on a three-day monitoring tour of health facilities in Abuja.

Ahmadu said that any facility found to be performing below the recommended standard or seen to render any service beyond the scope approved would be seal off.

He said that the essence of the exercise was to have an intensive inspection of the private health facilities in the FCT to ensure that facilities that were registered with PHERMC function according to the services they were registered to provide.

Ahmadu said: “So far, what we have seen is that some facilities that were registered earlier are still maintaining the standard that we expect of them.

”But so far, we have had cause to seal the services of one particular facility, which was providing services beyond the scope of which it was registered.”

He said that whereas some facilities have provided optimum services according to the approval granted by PHERMC, some have been discovered to perform below par.

Ahmadu strongly warned that the administration would not hesitate to seal any facility that failed to provide optimum service to the residents of FCT.

He added: “Well, all private facilities within the FCT registered with PHERMC have clear cut services that they have been registered to carry out.

”So, it is our expectations that all these facilities abide by that and provide services within that scope.

”And going beyond that, they need to seek approval to go beyond so that the facility will be inspected, and we will be able to assess if such additional services can be accommodated.

“We recognise that constraints occasioned by the economy presently, so we are going to work towards ensuring that the services provided by these facilities we are inspecting are not far below expectation and if they do, we have to shut it down.

”But those that just have minimal things to address certainly can continue to provide services but once they go below standard, we have no choice but to seal those facilities. It is in the interest of the public that we’re doing all this.”

Ahmadu said that any facility that was operating below standard operating without qualified personnel would be shut down.

Our correspondent reports that the team, which is divided into five groups, is expected to inspect not less than 200 health facilities within the next three days.